Eels NRLW star Mahalia Murphy is a pioneer of women’s sport, having represented her country in both rugby league and union, but her illustrious career pales in significance to the impact she is making on young people’s lives.

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The now 31-year-old has had a sporting career most athletes would only dream of, having played for the Indigenous All Stars, NSW Blues and Jillaroos back in 2015 as a 21-year-old long before the NRLW began.

Murphy transitioned to the Australian Sevens circuit from 2015 to 2019 and debuted for the Wallaroos in 2017, while also playing for the NSW Waratahs in the Super W competition in 2019 and 2020.

The NRLW’s inaugural season was 2020 and Murphy returned to rugby league to play for the Dragons, before switching to the Eels in 2023, where she has scored seven tries in 22 games to date.

Juggling two sports at once, Murphy also competed for the Wallaroos at the Women’s World Cup in 2022, before playing two Tests for the Jillaroos in 2024, as her career came full circle.

While Murphy has been an inspiration to young sportswomen for over a decade, her passion for helping others has seen her do even greater things for her community off the field both at home and abroad.

Murphy, a full-time child protection officer, is now a World Vision ambassador after joining their 1000 Voices for 1000 Girls initiative.

“When they explained what the campaign was about, I was really interested in getting behind it because I think advocating for the young girls and the young women that are facing the challenges in the world that are happening is something that I’m very passionate about,” Murphy told foxsports.com.au.

“I’m advocating for the voice of a young female named Lin, so I was using my voice to share her story and spread the awareness of this campaign.”

Murphy explained that even some parents out there need and want help to be better people for their children, which was the case for Lin.

“Lin is a young female that lives in Vietnam and she experienced family violence,” Murphy said.

“It was about discipline from her parents and her family and just the treatment that she received being a young female and her parents were open to support and now things have changed for the family.

“It has changed for her, but it’s now about sharing her story to influence other girls that might be in the same position.”

Murphy holds Lin’s story close to her heart and hopes to meet her one day face to face.

“I have asked World Vision if that’s something that I can do because I’d love to meet her or even have a phone call or be able to send her a message or just some kind of contact with her,” Murphy said.

“I think that’d be great to meet her and just let her know how proud I am and how strong and courageous she is for having a voice and for going through what she went through and choosing to share her story. It’s so courageous.”

Helping others has always been at the core of Murphy’s personality and life’s work and the first step towards healing is facing the fact that bad things are going on in the world when it comes to young people growing up.

“It means a lot to me,” Murphy said of the World Vision campaign.

“I have a deep passion to help people in general. But to be able to help the girls and the young women that are experiencing the challenges that they are.

“I believe everyone should have the first freedom and right over their own dignity and to be able to help share the awareness for these types of violence and these types of stories that are happening to many other young women around the world.

“I’m hoping that it can impact those families to make some changes or make some kind of influence around changing that.

“I have a deep passion in helping people and having people have control of their own body and their own decisions and their own freedom, so I’m definitely passionate about advocating for this campaign and just hoping I can help in any way.”

While World Vision is an international initiative, Murphy explains there is so much that is going on in our backyard in Australia that needs urgent attention.

“I work in child protection and I see this stuff a lot,” Murphy explains.

“I know it’s in our own country as well, so that’s why I’ve chosen to get into child protection because I have passion to be able to create safety in the houses and families that we work with and help families through those challenges and understanding the challenges that they’re going through.

“It’s definitely happening everywhere and it wasn’t until I stepped into child protection that I realised how much it actually is happening around me.

“A couple of the families that I work with actually live in the next street over and you wouldn’t think it.

“I think just being in this space that I work in now and just hearing how much is actually going on.

“It’s sad, but that’s why I want to be a person that’s going to be able to create some change.”

Murphy has been an advocate for helping others from a young age, having those values instilled in her by her parents and they have followed her most of her working and sporting life.

“I originally started working in community and I was running TEI, which is targeted early intervention programs for community,” Murphy said.

“I would hold programs for children, programs for parents, social programs and I’d have young children and parents coming in and they’d always vent to me and talk about what’s going on with them.

“And I was only limited so much that I could do for them at that time and I wanted to help more and I’ve always wanted to be able to help children in schools, in their house and parents as well.

“And being a student as well, when I reflect back when I was at school, I often think about what it was like for me and how some teachers misunderstood children back in the day, not knowing what we were actually going through at home and just the treatment that we got and seeing how others got treated.

“It made me think, I want to help these kids because these kids are actually struggling at home and it’s impacting them at school, but they’re getting punished at school by the teachers for the way that they’re behaving or how they are emotionally.

“I wanted to help families more and that’s why I was like, I want to get into child protection, so I can actually get involved with the parents and support the parents in home, whether it’s connecting with services that they need support for, speaking to the school to create a plan to help the child be able to focus at school and things like that, so that’s why I got into child protection.”

For Murphy, her life’s work in helping young people cuts close to home after what she went through as a young Indigenous person in her formative years.

“I often look back at when I was in high school and I literally experienced racism from the first day and every day going forward was like, I didn’t want to go to school,” Murphy said.

“The only thing that got me through school was sport because I was at a school that had a sporting program and that’s what got me through.

“That’s what I would look forward to at school and other than that, I didn’t want to be there.

“Every day from day one I experienced racism on a daily basis and I didn’t want to go to school.”

Murphy also had to carry the burden of grief over a tragic personal loss through this time, which further impacted her at school.

“When I was in year nine I lost my older sister and I was experiencing grief and I think that also obviously impacted my presence at school and my concentration level,” Murphy said.

“So I wasn’t really focusing at school too much but it affected my education and teachers were kind of on my back and saying, Mahalia you need to be better, you need to be doing this, but I wasn’t being present because I just emotionally and mentally wasn’t there.

“I’ve seen how other young kids that I work with, I know what’s going on at their house and I know how it’s impacting them at school and they’re not wanting to go to school and they haven’t had the support or the push from their parents to go to school and to see the value in school, so therefore now they’re all of a sudden being told they’ve got to focus.

“Just that challenge in itself is something that I’m trying to support with and that’s what I’m passionate about is the children understanding what the value is in school.”

Despite having such successful careers in both rugby league and union, Murphy recalls growing up there was only one sport and one team.

“Growing up my family followed rugby league,” Murphy said.

“My dad’s a die-hard Rabbitohs fan and we’d always be watching the footy and watching the Rabbitohs play.

“It wasn’t until I had a neighbour that had a son that was playing in the under 11s team for the Doonside Roos, they asked if I could play and I joined halfway through the season.

“But that was the same year that we had to stop because we were females and our bodies were developing and we had to wait till we were like 16, 17 to join again.

“That’s when I started to focus on athletics because that’s what I was going to The Hills Sports High School for was that training program for athletics.

“When I finished high school, I moved away down the south coast to study policing and I’d come back on the train on Friday nights and watch my sister play rugby union on the weekend.

“I’d run water for the team and a couple of girls didn’t turn up for the game and they asked my mum if I could play.

“My mum was like, no way because if she gets injured, she won’t be able to run again. But in second half mum eventually said yes and that was my first time being involved with rugby union.

“I didn’t really understand the rules around the rucks and stuff like that, but once I got the ball in my hands and I scored a try, I was like, I love this game I want to play it forever.

“I ended up moving back home after I graduated policing and then started to sign up with the local clubs and eventually got involved with rugby 15s for Penrith and then also signed up for the Doonside Roos league team.

“I would play union on Saturdays and play league on Sundays.”

As a pioneer of women’s rugby league and union, Murphy has seen the sports grow and the game change over the course of her 10 year career.

“Things have changed so much over the last 10 years for women’s sport,” Murphy said.

“I remember when I was back playing league in 2015 and then not long after signed with Aussie Sevens and I’d go through schools and I’d talk about the Jillaroos. I’d talk about women’s rugby league and the Aussie Sevens and not many people knew too much about it. “And then over the years, especially after the Olympics over in Rio, when the Aussie Sevens won the gold, I think that was a big game changer in terms of Sevens.

“After that any time we’d go to a school, they’d know about it. There was more people playing rugby sevens. There was more people wanting to play rugby sevens.

“And then in rugby league, when I played in the NRLW competition in 2020 for the Dragons, we had four teams and we played three games. And just looking at where it is now, we’ve got 12 teams this year and we’ve got 11 round games.

“So just the participation numbers have increased heaps. There’s genuine pathways now where girls can actually play at their clubs. They’ve got the Lisa Fiaola. They’ve got Tarsha Gale. They’ve got Harvey Norman, the NRLW.

“There’s more of a genuine pathway and that’s because there’s been a lot more support and investment put into the women’s game.

“It’s definitely changed over the last 10 years since I’ve ever gotten involved with the Jillaroos and the professional side of sport.”

Having achieved everything in two codes, Murphy is not short on career highlights, but she puts one above all her many accomplishments in both rugby league and union.

“My rugby league highlight would have to be my debut for the Jillaroos because that was the first time I played for Australia ever,” Murphy said.

“And I got a hat-trick on debut and got player of the match and my family were able to witness that as well.

“And we defeated New Zealand after many years, so I don’t think I could have asked for a better debut than that, so that’s definitely the highlight for my league career.

“For union, it would have to be the same, playing for Australia at the Sydney Sevens in front of my family.”

After supporting rugby league for the first 26 years of her life, Murphy got the chance in 2020 to do something that she never would have imagined growing up.

After years of supporting the Rabbitohs men’s team with her dad, Murphy got the opportunity to play in the inaugural season of the NRLW.

“It was crazy because growing up there was no women’s game that you could watch,” Murphy recalls.

“We looked up to Greg Inglis, we looked up to Johnathan Thurston, all the men.

“So the moment that we were able to have a women’s comp and be the equivalent to the men, it was massive for our game because it showed people that would tune into the game or attend our game that they can look up to us females as role models. That was massive.

“So we are now those role models that young girls can look up to and want to be like.

“Women’s rugby league has just changed massively over the last 10 years and it’s only going to get better.”

However, the increased demands of the NRLW’s expanded season also makes it hard to juggle Murphy’s sporting commitments with her full-time work.

“It is tough, it is very big days during the season as well because I do work full-time,” Murphy said.

“And even around my role because I am an Aboriginal consultant and a case worker and I’m the only Aboriginal consultant and we look after families that are from Parramatta all the way to Lithgow.

“So we cover a big space of area and being an Aboriginal consultant and case worker includes home visits.

“So sometimes I do have to go to Lithgow and do the drive back and make sure it works around my training hours as much as it works around the families because my role revolves around families and case workers that I consult with, so it is tough.

“There’s a lot that goes into it that makes it very difficult, but my job tries to support with how we make that work.

“There are challenging things that I see and deal with at my work as a child protection worker, but it’s also rewarding in its own way too because I feel like I’m making change.

“I’m trying to support families in a positive way, so sometimes it feels like it is work, but then it’s also a passion of mine, so I enjoy it.

“But I’m very lucky that I get to do two things that I love, which is working with communities and families and then also playing football.”

While she still has plenty of good years left, Murphy is closer to the end of her career than the beginning, but she still has the drive to play for her country, with a World Cup just around the corner.

“I would love to take the opportunity if I was able to play in the World Cup,” Murphy said.

“I’m just trying to take each week and each game as it comes and I will try my best because I would love to be part of the Australian team again and New South Wales as well.

“But I’m just going to work on making sure I have a good season to be able to be in contention for that.”

Another goal that burns as bright as ever is to win an NRLW premiership before she hangs up the boots and doing it with a proud club like the Eels would mean the world to Murphy.

“It would be great for our team because I have full belief we can win when we turn up for each other the way the team did against Sharks (earlier this season),” Murphy said.

“You could see the effort that they put in. You could see them competing. And the same with the Dragons game recently. It’s just a grit and determination to win that game.

“If we all turn up the way we are more than capable of doing, I believe our team can win the comp.

“It would mean a lot for us to win the premiership because our team has also dealt with so many injuries over the last few years, especially over pre-season and losing a lot of key players.

“It’s been great to see our team step up and compete without those players involved and I think our team is definitely very capable of winning the comp.”