Knights halfback Jesse Southwell believes she's still far off from being a "top tier" NRLW player despite kicking her side to victory against the Broncos on Sunday.
A change in goal-kicking style implemented at training last week gave Southwell enough confidence to slot home a conversion on the buzzer to beat the Broncos but the Knights halfback knows her side needs to be better.
"I don’t remember what was going through my head but I just thought if I miss it that’s alright as we’ll just have to go back to golden point.," Southwell told jetwinvip.com.
"I’ve been missing them from those close tram lines all season. I did a bit of kicking earlier in the week and changed my style a little bit so I wasn’t hooking it as much. I wasn’t getting a lot of purchase on it early on.
"When I kicked it I was pretty pumped. Our trainer was telling me to calm down but then we both saw the time had run out.
"The crowd kind of helped me out. It was something I’ve never experienced, just doing the Newcastle chant and I thought 'calm down Jesse'… I was getting tingles.
"It was pretty crazy but as a team we shouldn’t have been there in the first place."
Jesse Southwell wins it for the Knights
Southwell, who as a 17-year-old last season to help the Knights to a maiden NRLW title, tasted her first Origin series in June in an experience that was a learning curve for the teenager after it ended in a 1-1 scoreline.
Playing in a NSW side that featured the likes of NRLW stars Isabelle Kelly, Emma Tonegato and Jess Sergis, the side bounced back in Townsville after surrounding Origin I in Parramatta.
"I learned a lot about myself as a player and person through that whole Origin time," Southwell said.
"Playing with different players and top-tier girls I think there’s a big gap in between.
"I’m certainly not part of that top group, I have a long way to go and things to work on.
"I’m learning on the run and I’m still building my combination with Georgia Roche. The more game time we get together the better.
"The expansion has been a bit early and the competition isn’t as good as it could be, but the second Origin is a good display of what it could be especially if we had it at the end of the year."
The Knights have another home game against the Sharks on Sunday with Southwell's next match up against Tonegato in the halves among the storylines to watch.
"They’re a very attacking side. The little firecracker Emma… she'll be running us around and we're going to have to stop her.
"We’ve got a lot to work on and that game was good [last week] because it showed our resilience.
"In past seasons we haven’t had that so it’s good to see where we can go."
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