WARRINGTONIAN rugby league star Jodie Cunningham has a new role in the sport.
The England captain has joined the staff at her Super League club, St Helens.
Cunningham, 32, a former Cardinal Newman High School student, is now the head of women’s pathways and performance at the club she’s been a part of since the Saints women’s team was formed in 2018.
She will also continue to play for the club for whom she has been captain since 2021.
“It’s an exciting new role,” said Cunningham.
“I think it just shows the growth of the women’s game but also how seriously St Helens as a club are taking the women’s game.
“To have somebody designated to look at the operations and the pathways specifically for the women and just pull everything together and make sure they’re fully integrated into the club and the performance department as well, it’s an exciting position and hopefully I can do it justice!”
Cunningham has been an incredible ambassador for rugby league on and off the field.
In 2021, she led Saints to an historic treble of the Women’s Challenge Cup, League Leaders’ Shield and Super League trophies.
Furthermore, in that season she received the Woman Of Steel Award as the best player in the Betfred Women’s Super League.
She has now helped guide the Red V to three straight Women’s Challenge Cups, the latest of which saw even more history made with Saints becoming the first women’s rugby league side to win the competition at Wembley Stadium.
As a trailblazer and inspiration for more young players to participate in rugby league, Cunningham has been working with the Rugby Football League for the past three years as the national women’s and girls’ development manager.
And she was a leading light and ambassador in the organising, promotional and legacy initiatives for the 2021 Rugby League World Cup.
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