Jess Skinner was part of the Jillaroos' World Cup-winning coaching staff

Skinner recently returned from England, where she was part of the Jillaroos' World Cup-winning coaching staff alongside head coach Brad Donald following a stint at the Newcastle Knights earlier in the year where she assisted them during their first NRLW season.

As well as being the First Nations Gems coach and part of the Indigenous All-Stars coaching staff, Skinner is regularly on the road with rugby league but has begun to reflect on what has been a crazy 12 months.

"I started off with the Knights then finished things with a World Cup, it's been a bit of a journey this year," she said.

"I took a leave from work to focus on footy and it really paid off, in the end, to be able to win the Cup and bring it back."

The Jillaroos went through the recent World Cup undefeated, eventually winning the final in emphatic fashion 54-4.

While they were dominant on the field, Skinner believes the group were more than deserving of what they achieved over a few weeks.

"It was amazing, I think the selectors did a really good job at picking great people," she said.

"Everyone was really selfless and just great humans, it made the camp really smooth and easy.

"They were just really eager to learn as much as they can, we are talking about the best NRLW players in Australia.

"But they are still eager to keep learning, it was probably one of my easiest campaigns thanks to having the best players.

"They are good humans and we did a lot of work off the field to leave as better people and players, it just carried onto the field."

Played at the iconic Old Trafford in Manchester, the Women's World Cup final was played before the Men's fixture with Australia winning both titles.

On what was without a doubt a special day for Australia, Skinner admitted it was good to see the Women's and Men's sides interact with each other.

"The men's game was after so they were able to see us and we got to watch them which was really good," she said.

"We got to go out onto the field after together which was pretty special, to be able to go out onto Old Trafford with them (was special).

"Mal (Meninga) is a big supporter of the women's space and always advocates for women to have as much as men.

"He was amongst most of the team and staff, there were a lot of good people around the Australian team."

If you look back only a little more than a year ago, Skinner was still the head coach of the Women's Western Rams side and now she has just returned from a World Cup-winning tour of England.

Even after returning to Australia roughly a week ago, Skinner is wasting no time getting stuck back in at home.

"It's something that I'm really grateful for, I still the Rams space and coach out here in the far-West academy," she said.

"I got home on Thursday and have an academy at Warren a week later, it's always nice to get to the top and represent your country but for me, it isn't worth it if you can't come back and share it.

"Whether that is the resources or coaching and making sure our country kids in particular the women are getting exposed at the higher level so we can see more of them transition into the NRLW space."

Looking ahead, more and more rugby league is on the horizon for Skinner, who knows the next few months of work could make a lot of difference to how easily female athletes can make it to the professional level.

"I'm actually really privileged to have picked up a position in the NRL in the pathways," she said.

"I've been working in particular within the Indigenous space around pathways for females and working with other key stakeholders.

"We've got a few academies all around Australia, we've got the All-Stars campaign coming up so we've got selection camp for that coming up in the next few weeks.

"It's just about nutting out what the pathways look like over the next three to four years for women especially with new NRLW clubs coming in.

"We need new players and in a few years' time we want all 18 clubs to have a women's team, I like the pathways space."

An additional four NRLW clubs will join the competition in 2023, taking the number of teams to 10 and despite some interest from different places, Skinner isn't making a decision just yet.

"I haven't committed to NRLW yet, I'm sort of really enjoying the pathways space right now and helping the new clubs get their players," she said.

"It allows me to stay at home a bit longer with the kids and still give back to my community which means the world to me."

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