Ballinger’s long and winding road to World Cup shot with Australia

HEATHER Ballinger has endured the “roughest” year of her rugby league career and it gives her goosebumps to think she could come out the other side of it to lift the Women’s Rugby League World Cup trophy again.

Adversity is second nature to the former Ivanhoes star about to run out for the Jillaroos over the next fortnight, so for her to say 2017 has been difficult is significant.

Ballinger’s first tilt at the green and gold in 2009 was marred by injury. She’s watched women’s regional competitions fold abruptly.

Tragedy rocked her and the Far North rugby league community in 2010 when Rebecca Bowie collapsed on the footy field. Ballinger was the first to assist, an effort that led to an award in honour of “Becky Jo”, but while her efforts were in vain, the heroics were highly valued.

Some weekends she would fly from Cairns to Brisbane to play, only to be told, on arrival, a team had forfeited and her trip was in vain.

All of those challenges made winning the 2013 World Cup pretty sweet, but fast- forward to July this year and the dream of doing it again appeared over with a career- threatening injury in the State of Origin.

“This has been my roughest year,” Ballinger said.

“I fractured my eye socket in the trials before the season even started and then I fractured my hand in the State of Origin.

“It was my right hand, my dominant, so it’s also my operational hand for work, my writing hand, everything, so I felt very disabled and wondering if I was ever going to get it back to where I needed it and do the things I used to do.

“This will be my first game back from my fracture so I’m looking forward to that.”

Now she’s here, having been named on an extended bench for the first game of the tournament today against Cook Islands, it’s a relief and she’s ready to reward those who first made this possible.

The ultimate reward for her and all those supporters would be to hold the World Cup trophy at Suncorp Stadium on December 2.