The 27-year-old captain of the Dolphinettes was appointed one of three new vice presidents at the club’s annual general meeting along with Rowan Kelly, for his second term, and recently retired champion lock forward, Rob McCabe.

“I have never played a team sport since I was 11 years of age so this season was a real first for me,” a delighted Emily-Jane said.

“To play rugby for the first time and also be selected as captain for my Dolphinettes team as well as win selection for the Mid North Coast representative team just proves anything is possible. Honestly, it completely blew me away.

“The support throughout from my rugby club and what I like to call my rugby family has been amazing. The help with my children, the emotional support, is something I have never really experienced before, something I want every young woman and mother to be a part of.

“There is nothing like playing as a team and celebrating defeat or victory with your opponents who are just as much close friends as the women you play beside.”

Like almost all of the Dolphinettes’ seven-a-side team, most newcomers to the game last winter, Emily-Jane found the physicality of rugby, the tackling and collisions of their first-season competition, a challenging experience without proving overwhelming.

Mark Hudson and David Birch, ex-Dolphins players of significant rugby experience, were the team’s coaches. The development and improvement in the girls was shown when they held the ultimate champions, the Gloucester Cockies, to a three-point margin.

Next winter, the MNC Zone has decided to expand the women’s sevens to 10-a-side game with 10-minute halves without rushing into a 15-a-side competition.

“When we were trialling earlier this year, I loved the 15-a-side format,” Emily-Jane said. “It suited my style of rugby. The slower pace enabled you to develop rucking and mauling and breakdown play, and generally expanded your game.

“Ten-a-side and 15s rugby opens doors to all fitness levels, making the game accessible to players of all sizes.”

Emily-Jane considered the women’s game deserved more representation last season so she was delighted when club president, Damian Daczko, suggested she stand for a position.

Asked if she foresaw any difficulties in her new administrative role, Emily-Jane said without hesitation, “Obviously we need more players, but I don’t imagine there’s anything I can’t handle.”

As for her two girls, seven-year-old Amelia-Jane and two-year-old Indiana, the Dolphins have the biggest creche in the Great Lakes; the Dolphins’ clubhouse.

Welcome news from the AGM was Damian Daczko’s extension of his outstanding term as president for a ninth year. Likewise, reappointed were the incomparable secretariat, Gerry and Sue Hobbs, with another new committee member, Paul Scott, as treasurer.