Rugby League: Steph Halpin to captain-coach North Tamworth ladies league tag in 2023

But that day isn't yet.

Hot on the heels of being named the North Tamworth ladies league tag best and fairest for the third straight year, and their joint players-player, Halpin has been announced as the Bears captain-coach for 2023.

"They've been asking me for a few years now but the timing sort of wasn't quite right," she said.

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Part of that was she felt she didn't know enough about the game to be coaching it. She only played her first season of league tag in 2019.

Now with a couple more seasons under her belt, she believes she has "got a bit more to add".

"And I thought I'm there training anyway, and I contribute a lot as a leader in the playing group so I thought why not?, let's give it a crack," she said.

By her own admission someone who likes to be "go, go, go", Halpin will certainly be that with her other commitments as well - wife, mother, work, touch football, ironman.

But she wouldn't have it any other way.

"It's good, it makes be happy. It keeps me on my toes and hopefully I'm being a role model for other people to get out and do something," she said.

She also spoke about wanting to give back, and this being one way she can do that.

The start of the season will clash with her final preparations for the Port Macquarie Ironman, which is on May 7, but she said the club were "really understanding" about that and "happy to support me to get that done and then jump on the footy train".

Not that it should really affect the coaching side of things too much. She just won't probably play the first few games, which is what she did this year.

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After their extra-time grand final loss to Dungowan, Halpin said the fire is burning pretty strong.

She is excited about their prospects with a large number of the playing group expected to be sticking around.

"Being a PE teacher I have heaps of ideas for what we can do to improve upon this year's result, which was obviously disappointing for us," she said.

"I guess the main thing is, a lot of them are young adults, so just engaging them well, and ensuring their fitness and skills are up to speed."

She also spoke about wanting to give them the tools that if they were "to ever try themselves in NRLW or something like that" they would be well equipped to. She would love to see some of them "move on and do something like that".

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The coaching gig won't be the only new role for Halpin in 2023.

After four years as head of PE at Tamworth High she is leaving at the end of this year to be the head of PE at McCarthy Catholic College.

"I'll be really sad to leave Tamworth High, but you know change is good," she said.

It will be a full circle moment, attending McCarthy for high school.

"There's lots of staff members who are still there when I was at school and who were pretty supportive of me coming up," Halpin said.

"It will also be good to go back there and see it from a different perspective."

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