Paige Parker (born 7 May 1995) is an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

and

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

footballer who plays for the

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos Rugby League Football Club Ltd., commonly referred to as the Broncos, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos play in Australia's elite com ...

in the

NRL Women's Premiership The Telstra NRL Women's Premiership (NRLW) is Australia's national rugby league competition for women's rugby league in Australia, female players. The first season of the league began in September 2018 with four teams. The league is run by the ...

. She previously played for

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

and the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

in the

AFL Women's AFL Women's (AFLW) is Australia's national semi-professional Australian rules football league for female players. The first season of the league in February and March 2017 had eight teams; the league expanded to 10 teams in the 2019 season, 1 ...

competition (AFLW), and the

Newcastle Knights The Newcastle Knights are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. They compete in Australasia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership. Playing in red and blue, th ...

in the

NRLW The Telstra NRL Women's Premiership (NRLW) is Australia's national rugby league competition for female players. The first season of the league began in September 2018 with four teams. The league is run by the National Rugby League (NRL) and is ...

Early life

Parker was raised in

's northern suburb of

Bracken Ridge Bracken Ridge is a northern suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Bracken Ridge had a population of 16,936 people. Geography The suburb is located about north of the Brisbane central business district. The southern ...

to a family of

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

(

Quandamooka The Quandamooka people are Aboriginal Australians who live around Moreton Bay in Southeastern Queensland. They are composed of three distinct tribes, the Nunukul, the Goenpul and the Ngugi, and they live primarily on Moreton and North Stradbro ...

) descent. She attended St John Fisher College throughout her upbringing and excelled in touch football where she plays for the

and represents Australia at the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

level. She also played

in her youth and was playing for

Coorparoo Coorparoo is a suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Coorparoo had a population of 16,282 people. Geography Coorparoo is by road south-east of the Brisbane GPO. It borders Camp Hill, Holland Park, Stones Corner ...

in the

AFL Queensland Women's League There are five senior women's AFL leagues in Queensland governed by AFL Queensland. The Queensland Australian Football League Women's (QAFLW) is the highest league in the State and provides elite women footballers the opportunity to play in ...

when she was drafted by with the ninth pick in the

2018 AFL Women's draft The 2018 AFL Women's (AFLW) draft consisted of the various periods when the ten clubs in the AFL Women's, Australian rules football women's competition could recruit players prior to the competition's 2019 AFL Women's season, 2019 season. As i ...

AFLW career

Parker made her debut for

in the round 1 game against

Greater Western Sydney Greater Western Sydney (GWS) is a large region of the metropolitan area of Greater Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), Australia that generally embraces the north-west, south-west, central-west, and far western sub-regions within Sydney's metropoli ...

Moreton Bay Central Sports Complex Moreton Bay Central Sports Complex is a sports field complex in Burpengary, a suburb of the City of Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia primarily for both Australian rules football and soccer. It was built and opened in 2013 and are managed b ...

on 3 February 2019. Following the 2019 season, she joined the

. After playing 13 games over two seasons, Parker was delisted by the Gold Coast in June 2021.

Rugby League career

On 3 December 2021, Parker was recruited by the

to be a part of their inaugural

squad. In round 5 of the delayed

2021 NRL Women's season The 2021 NRLW premiership was the fourth professional season of Women's rugby league in Australia. The season was planned to start in August 2021, postponed to October 2021 and further postponed to 2022 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Th ...

, Parker made her

debut for the Knights against the

Gold Coast Titans The Gold Coast Titans are a professional rugby league football club, based on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australia and New Zealand's national rugby league club competition. The ...

. In June 2022, she signed with the

for the 2022 season.

References

External links

Newcastle Knights profile
* * 1995 births Living people Sportspeople from Brisbane Sportswomen from Queensland Indigenous Australian players of Australian rules football Australian rules footballers from Queensland Brisbane Lions (AFLW) players Gold Coast Football Club (AFLW) players Newcastle Knights (NRLW) players Touch footballers {{AFL-bio-1990s-stub