Upton's top five Origin moments

Harvey Norman Queensland Maroons flyer Tamika Upton – 'Freaky Meeky' to a lot of people - is a woman of few words. She let’s her skills do the talking, and boy do they talk.

The try-scoring machine, who hails from Central Queensland and won the 2023 NRLW Dally M Medal as part of the premiership-winning Newcastle Knights side, loves nothing more than ripping in for Queensland and earning bragging rights over New South Wales.

“It’s obviously very special to play with this bunch of girls in this jersey… it’s really the best of the best,” Upton said of donning maroon.

“We’ve got the best staff… access to the coaches and different staff really gets us in that position.

“You can just feel the support from family and the whole state when it comes to State of Origin.”

Upton said she grew up loving Origin.

“We were all up watching the whole pre-game, sitting there as a family… we all love football and we're all absolutely in love with Queenslanders,” Upton said.

“Growing up in Central Queensland, it was pretty mad. I loved Greg Inglis growing up and obviously Billy Slater, Johnathan Thurston. I mean, they’re all incredible. That whole dream team was pretty much my era growing up, so I was pretty fortunate to see them win so many series. Loved all of them.”

Upton said it was unbelievable to her that there were children across the state who looked up to her in the same way she looked up to Inglis, Slater and Thurston.

“I forget that sometimes,” Upton said.

“When you’re out there playing, particularly after the game and obviously in the lead up to that game in Townsville (last year), you feel that and you feel honoured and obviously it makes you play a bit harder.”

Upton’s top five Origin moments

1. Hunt’s runaway try

“Number one would have to be Ben Hunt’s runaway try to seal it. That was incredible. I remember watching it. I was on my own, I had just moved to Newcastle and I did not want to sit with any of the New South Wales girls and watch it. It was incredible. Loved it."

2. The 2020 men's Origin series

"That series they weren’t supposed to win, so I think that was pretty incredible. I debuted in 2020. That was a crazy ride. We played and won and then went to Suncorp to watch the boys, which was pretty incredible."

3. Debut in 2020

"It was crazy. It was the COVID year so things were pretty different with us being isolated from everyone, the whole public. And then we got to run out to friends and family in the crowd and we were like ‘holy shit’. It was definitely different to what we had been living for two weeks, but that was incredible."

4. Record-breaking Townsville game in 2023

"That was incredible. Just feeling the atmosphere at women’s footy, we haven’t had too much of that, was incredible. It’s getting bigger and bigger and that’s unreal. Atmosphere was unreal."

5. Men's Game III win in 2015

“I’ll have to go the game when the boys took it out 52-6. I remember watching and it was the best night ever. They took the series. Absolutely smashed the Blues in that game. Made me feel so good. It was like watching a movie. It was unreal. Bragging rights."

Support the Maroons in the 2024 Origin series by becoming a Maroons member; there's a membership for everyone.