Georgia Hale has revealed her Golden Boot win has only further ignited her desire to deliver the Gold Coast their first premiership in 2024.
Bestowed with International Rugby League's highest women's honour on Wednesday, the Titans NRLW captain shared her pride of being awarded the top gong after helping inspire the Kiwi Ferns to victory over Australia after seven years of Jillaroos dominance, but has quickly turned her attention to focussing on winning a premiership - something the 28-year-old has yet been able to do after six seasons.
Falling short of securing her maiden title with her club teammates in the recent grand final against Newcastle, Hale's incredible individual accolade has struck a match to reignite her ambitions to bring 'Gold for Gold' when she returns to the upcoming NRLW season next year.
"This [Golden Boot win] is right up there in my career, but off the back of this gives me so much motivation and it ignites the fire... I feel like I get to be 18 again and can't wait to think what's next in my chapter and in my career," she told titans.com.au.
"I'm so excited to return home to the Titans and we have some unfinished business there, which we're excited to build upon."
'I'm humbled and honoured': Hale shares pride of Golden Boot win
Dusting herself off from the agonising six-point loss in October, the inspirational leader quickly regrouped knowing there was an opportunity to bounce back, and Hale did so with their most recent 12-6 win over the Jillaroos to cap off a successful Pacific Championships for New Zealand.
But the gritty victory was one that Hale had been working towards since she was 21... having played a part of the 2016 Anzac Test win which happened to be the last time Australia were downed by their Trans-Tasman counterparts.
From there, it had been one-way traffic for the green and gold - until that relentless performance at the end of October in Melbourne - something the nine-year Test star wants to continue in the coming years.
"I was really fortunate when I came into the Kiwi Ferns scene, we had got a win over the Jillaroos back in 2016, so I'd had a glimpse of what that feeling was like [before our most recent win] and breaking that seven-year drought made the win so much sweeter," Hale said.
"When we did get one up on them in Melbourne, I think it just showed how relentless we are in terms of turning up and always competing and I guess it showed the calibre of Australia to hold such dominance over a long period.
"The Kiwi Ferns had been dominant in the time before that, so I just feel very proud to lead the girls and be a pivotal part of the last decade of Kiwi Ferns to regain some of that success back and it was definitely an enjoyable moment."
2023 Golden Boot: Georgia Hale
This includes having eyes on clinching the World Cup from the Aussies after playing in consecutive grand final losses in 2017 and 2021.
"I'm really excited to get back to my home nation and with the Kiwi Ferns, I think there's some exciting times ahead," Hale said.
"The game (in New Zealand) is in a great place and it's so rewarding that the era of players that we're in are adding to that. Hopefully we can leave it in a better place than we found it and we can leave a legacy and make some further milestones.
"We thoroughly enjoyed our time over in England with the most recent World Cup, but there's definitely some unfinished business and we weren't happy with the way we finished things.
"Whilst yes in the recent Pacific Championships, we got the opportunity to turn the tide, but the big picture is World Cup.
"We have faith in our coach Ricky (Henry) our coach that has put some stellar people in good places and it's so nice to welcome a wave of new Kiwi Ferns into our space.
"Hopefully they will cement a jersey over the next few years to take us through to a World Cup and hopefully we can all be successful together."
