Grenfell girl Alana O'Loughlin is dreaming of playing for Australia

The Grenfell girl was the lone player from her town selected in this year's Western Rams Lisa Fiaola squad and you would be hard pressed to find a player taking that honour more seriously than her.

"I just want to train as well as I can. I've been waking up early to go to the pool every morning before school to swim laps," she said.

"Ever since I was younger, I'd been wanting to play for the higher groups. Even making it to play for Australia one day would be amazing, that's my dream. Being old enough to start trialling for these bigger teams is really good."

2023 was the first year that the Woodbridge player was allowed to trial for this particular representative team and it wasn't easy going for her, or any of the hopefuls.

"It was very hot for all the girls who trialled, it was about 37 degrees, so extremely hot," she said.

"We played two games each against other teams that were split up and we were selected from that. I like to think I did really well."

The game of rugby league has always run deep for the O'Loughlins, and Alana is proud to keep the family name well and truly alive in the rep circuit.

"To be completely honest, seeing my brothers play made me fall in love with the game," she said.

"My family were quite supportive and very excited when I said I got into the Rams. I have one brother who is down in Canberra so it's a bit harder for him to be involved in all of it, so when he heard about it he was thrilled. He actually played for the Rams as well, so he was quite excited to see that I was as into it as he was."

Although there were five Woodbridge players selected in this year's team, the 16-year-old prop was the lone player from Grenfell amongst the 22-strong side.

Although she is feeling a little bit of pressure to carry the weight of a town on her back, she wouldn't have it any other way.

"There's already one girl here who says she looks up to me and I just love that," O'Loughlin said.

"I've been waiting for this day where I can get into it and seeing the game grow these past few years has just made me want it even more."

Western will play their first game of the competition in just a few weeks.

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