The last month has for Emily Dietrich been a whirlwind of footy engagements.
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Rather than slowing down with the winter season wrapping up, it has been quite the opposite for the emerging dual-code star.
In late September, the McCarthy student played for the NSW Combined Catholic Colleges under 16s rugby league side at the NSW All Schools Championships in Port Macquarie.
She virtually dropped her bags back from that and was off to Forster for the State 7s rugby union championships.
Off the back of her performances for Central North in that, she was then selected in the under 17s NSW 7s Development Squad to play Queensland on October 15.
In between all of that she also trialled for the Newcastle Knights Lisa Fiola Cup squad.
All of this has come after, during the season, she was selected in the NSW Country under 16s union side and the NSW All Schools under 16s 7s side to contest the Australian Schools Rugby Championships.
Suffice to say it's been a big year for the Pirates junior.
And it's not over yet.
She has another training/trial day with the NSW development squad in December.
Following that 13 players will be selected to represent NSW in the "Battle of the Border," which is scheduled to take place in February 2024.
For Dietrich it has all come as a bit of a surprise, and a bonus really.
Her main goal going into the year was to make the under 16s schools side.
Only the second time the girls 7s competition has been included in the tournament, it is one of the best experiences she's had in rugby.
"It was amazing," she said.
The league All Schools were also pretty "great".
"It was my first league competition so it was pretty exciting," she said.
If not a little bit daunting.
"It was a little scary. I'm like 'god now I have to learn how to play'," she said of hearing her name announced in the side following the trials.
Pretty much learning on the run, she admitted there were a few times where she was "very close" to placing the ball back for the ruck rather than getting up to play the ball.
Another time one of her team-mates was making a run and she was running with her ready to seal the ball and clean out.
But on the whole, she loved it.
"It was so fun," she said.
So much so that she is keen to explore more opportunities with league into the future.
Playing fullback, she certainly wasn't out of her depth, being named player of the match for their game on the final day and their best back for the competition.
The 16-year-old has had a footy in her hands for pretty much as long as she can remember, and has playing since she was nine after watching older brother Lachie play for the Tamworth Tri Colours and thinking he "looked pretty cool doing it".
Initially though, as she shared, dad Matt "wasn't too sure about it."
"He wasn't going to let me play at first but mum convinced him," she said.
She's glad she did.
- Farrer's Lucas Broderick was meanwhile named player of the match as the NSW under 15s boys side beat Queensland 31-14 on Saturday to clinch their series honours 2-nil.
