New South Wales will start red-hot favourites to complete the first 3-0 clean sweep in women’s State of Origin when the series reaches game three at Robina on Thursday night, but Queensland will hand Gold Coast outside back Destiny Mino-Sinapati the biggest assignment of her career in the absence of injured skipper Tamika Upton.
Mino-Sinapati, who has played fullback for Queensland 19s and for her club side Wynnum Manly, will wear No.1 in a reshuffled side that is also missing prop Makenzie Weale and winger Julia Robinson. North Queensland forward Lillian Yarrow will come off the bench on debut as Queensland try to avoid becoming the first women’s Origin side to be swept 3-0.
The selection is a sharp turn for a player whose rise was interrupted almost as soon as it began. Mino-Sinapati was signed to an NRLW deal in 2023 after scoring four tries in an academy match, made her NRLW debut that same year and then delivered one of the defining moments of the Titans’ season when she scored the critical try in the semi-final against the Sydney Roosters to send them into the grand final.
Then the injuries came. Knee surgery and a syndesmosis setback limited her to just three NRLW games across the following two years, a spell Queensland coach Karyn Murphy said tested the young back but never broke her resolve. Murphy said Mino-Sinapati had “pretty much been out for two years”, adding that watching her go through it was “really tough”, before praising her resilience, work ethic and testing numbers. She also said the player had “never wavered” in her goal to return stronger.
Murphy’s faith in the 2023 signing is rooted in more than sentiment. Mino-Sinapati has been getting reps at fullback with the Titans while training, and her coach said she is a busy, fit player who will be “everywhere” on the field. Murphy also noted that she is a different player to Upton and does not have the same level of experience, but said she would do a good job for Queensland and that it was a good story for her family and state.
The contest carries an edge that goes beyond the scoreboard. No women’s side has won a clean sweep in a three-match Origin series, and Queensland’s long standard in the women’s game is now only part of the backdrop. The Maroons went 17 seasons undefeated from 1999 to 2015, a run that included 16 wins in a row, and Murphy herself debuted for Queensland in 1999 before retiring in 2014 without losing an interstate game.
That history makes Thursday night feel less like a dead rubber than a test of how much pride can still drive a side already trailing. Murphy said there is never a dead rubber in Origin and that every game matters, whatever the circumstance. For Mino-Sinapati, it is a chance to step into the biggest spotlight in the women’s game after years spent fighting to get back there.
The result may still be stacked against Queensland, but the move at fullback gives the Maroons a fresh face and a live storyline as they try to delay an unwanted first. For Mino-Sinapati, the night is simpler. She gets the jersey, the responsibility and the chance to show why Queensland kept waiting for her return. Related background is available in State Of Origin Game 3: Queensland blood Destiny Mino-Sinapati for Robina clash.
