Vanessa Foliaki (born 20 August 1993) is a New Zealand-born Australian

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

Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks Women The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks Women are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Cronulla, in the Sutherland Shire, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. They compete in the National Rugby League Women's Premiership (NRLW), Austral ...

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 ...

and the Wentworthville Magpies in the

NSWRL Women's Premiership The Harvey Norman Women's Premiership is a rugby league competition for clubs in New South Wales. It is the only state wide open age competition for women in New South Wales and is run by New South Wales Rugby League. The NSWRL Women's Premiershi ...

. Primarily a er, she has represented

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Background

Born in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, Foliaki grew up in

Māngere Māngere () or Mangere is one of the largest suburbs in Auckland, in northern New Zealand. It is located on mainly flat land on the northeastern shore of the Manukau Harbour, to the northwest of Manukau City Centre and 15 kilometres south of ...

, where she played

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

before moving to

in 2010.

Playing career

In Australia, Foliaki first played rugby league for the Orange Hawks. In 2014, Foliaki joined the Canley Vale Dragons in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, and was selected to represent

and

. In 2016, Foliaki moved to

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, joining the Burleigh Bears. In 2017, Foliaki and teammates

Karina Brown Karina Brown (born 9 March 1989) is an Australian rugby league footballer who plays for the Gold Coast Titans Women in the NRL Women's Premiership and the Burleigh Bears in the QRL Women's Premiership. A or er, she is a Queensland and Austr ...

and Sasha Mahuika left Burleigh to form the

Easts Tigers The Brisbane Tigers are a rugby league club based at Langlands Park, in the suburb of Coorparoo in Brisbane, Australia. Since 1996, they have competed in the Queensland Cup, having competed in the Brisbane Rugby League from 1934 to 1997, where ...

women's team. In December 2017, she was a member of Australia's

2017 Women's Rugby League World Cup The 2017 Women's Rugby League World Cup was the fifth staging of the Women's Rugby League World Cup and was held in Australia between 16 November and 2 December 2017. Pool and semi-final matches was held at Southern Cross Group Stadium in Sydney ...

-winning squad.

2018

In June, Foliaki represented NSW Country at the Women's National Championships. In July, she joined the Sydney Roosters

team. In Round 1 of the

2018 NRL Women's season The 2018 NRL Women's Premiership (NRLW) was the first season of professional women's rugby league in Australia. Teams Pre-season Only two of the four sides, the Brisbane Broncos and New Zealand Warriors, took part in pre-season trial games. T ...

, Foliaki made her debut for the Sydney Roosters, starting at second-row in their 4–10 loss to the

New Zealand Warriors The New Zealand Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as ...

. On 30 September, she started at second-row in the Roosters' 12–34

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

loss to the Brisbane Broncos.

2019

On 21 June, Foliaki came off the bench in New South Wales' 14–4 State of Origin win over Queensland at North Sydney Oval. She played three games for the Roosters during their winless

2019 NRL Women's season The 2019 NRL Women's Premiership was the second season of professional women's rugby league in Australia. Teams Pre-season Regular season The season again operated under a round-robin format, with games played as curtain-raisers to the ...

2020

In 2020, Foliaki joined the

Mounties RLFC The Mounties Rugby League Football Club (sponsored by Mounties Group) is an Australian rugby league football club based in Mount Pritchard, New South Wales formed in 1927. They currently play in the NSW Cup, Ron Massey Cup and Sydney Shield. Mo ...

team before moving to the Wentworthville Magpies in August. On 25 October, she started at in the Roosters' 10–20 NRLW Grand Final loss to the Brisbane Broncos.

2022

In early June 2022, the Parramatta Eels announced that Foliaki had signed to play for the club in the

2022 NRL Women's season The 2022 NRLW Premiership was the fifth professional season of Women's rugby league in Australia. The season started on Saturday, 20 August and ran for seven weekends. This comprised five rounds, semi-finals for the top four teams, and a Grand ...

Achievements and accolades

Team

: Australia – Winners

References

External links

Sydney Roosters profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foliaki, Vanessa 1993 births Living people Australian female rugby league players Australia women's national rugby league team players Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks (NRLW) players New Zealand sportspeople of Tongan descent New Zealand female rugby league players Parramatta Eels (NRLW) players Rugby league second-rows Rugby league props Rugby league players from Auckland People from Māngere Sydney Roosters (NRLW) players Tonga women's national rugby league team players