Former Featherstone Rovers halfback Tally Bryer is looking forward to new beginnings as a Leeds Rhinos star.
AMY HARDCASTLE, gone. Shona Hoyle, gone. Hanna Butcher, retired. Caitlin Casey, gone. The list of recent departures at Leeds Rhinos goes on.
It’s fair to say that the two-time Super League champions face something of a transitional year in 2025 with many of their experienced first-team favourites moving on and more new faces stepping up from the club’s successful academy structure.
Promoting their own talent from within has worked well for the club’s men’s team in the past so hopes will be high this approach will work again with this side.
It might take some time, and it won’t happen overnight, but that is no reason to write off the team’s chances of success this year.
That’s the message coming from Tally Bryer, one of the new faces to arrive at Headingley in 2025 after joining from relegated Featherstone Rovers.
“When any team has six or seven players leaving at the end of one year, people are always going to wonder if they’ll struggle the next season,” Bryer told Rugby League World.
“It is going to be a rebuilding year for us, but the academy players that have come up have all been working so hard at that level that it hasn’t been too much of a step up to the first team in terms of fitness levels and stuff like that.
“The skill level of those academy girls is great as well, so it will be an exciting year and a chance to show the outsiders what Leeds Rhinos are all about this year.
“It’s all about working as a team and we have a really positive environment. We’re all working towards the same goal.
“Since I’ve arrived, no one has had a negative attitude, everyone works hard and everyone wants to play their very best for Leeds Rhinos. So I think we can really push on and prove people wrong if they think we’ll struggle.”
After spending one season with a struggling Castleford Tigers side in 2022, Bryer transferred to Featherstone where she helped win her side promotion to an expanded eight-team Super League competition in her first season.
She was then one of Rovers’ stand-out players in what proved a difficult season in the top flight, one that ultimately ended in relegation at the hands of Leigh Leopards.
Now Bryer faces yet another new challenge, stepping into the shoes of the departed halfback pairing of Butcher and Casey, where she will be joined by fellow new signing Melanie Howard, a former NRLW and State of Origin star.
Leading any team around the field when they are expected to be challenging for trophies is always a tough ask, but it is a challenge the 20-year-old trainee teacher is ready for.
“I had a difficult season at Featherstone last year with how things went on the pitch and I wanted to open up another opportunity,” continued the former Cutsyke junior.
“I then got a phone call from Lois (Forsell) and it went from there. I was open to the idea of an initial trial period and thankfully it was successful so I have taken the opportunity with both hands.
“It was difficult being on trial and not knowing what would happen at the end of it, but I just looked at it as a real opportunity. I thought even if I didn’t get anything at the end of it I could always ask for feedback, or ask to try again.
“I had also spoken to other coaches and I knew the standard at Leeds and I knew the expectations there. I would have respected the decision if I didn’t fit into that, but by working hard off the field and in the gym I felt I could match that energy so I just gave it my all.
“I had a positive mindset and listened to coaches so it was great when I heard the news that all that hard work had paid off and I got the deal.
“It’s been a big step up from Featherstone in terms of intensity at training and things like that but the girls welcomed me straight away. It feels like I have been there for years already with how well I’ve settled in. They are a great set of girls and I’m really enjoying it.
“We’re at training for three hours and we make use of every minute. Everything is more advanced and is a real step up compared to Featherstone, but I’m finding my way into it now and I am enjoying the progress I am making.
“I’m a new player in the squad so I have to learn how to play within the team, but I’m enjoying the role, so it has been exciting rather than too daunting.
“Halfback is an important role in the team so it’s important I’m vocal and try to organise the team.
“Mel is a great signing for us as well and I am excited to see her out on the pitch in the halves.
“I’m still getting to know her and how she plays but it’s exciting for us all, and especially for me, that she’s here.
“She’s experienced and I can hopefully learn from her as much as she can from me.
“There are a lot of other internationals in the team too and we still have Caitlin Beevers to come back from injury. That is new to me and it is great to have that standard of player around me and to be working with them.
“They are very vocal and although they’re not halfbacks they still help me in different areas. It is great to have that and I am already feeling the benefit of that.
“It’s different here too because there is more to play for, with more expected from Leeds. We have the Grand Final at the end of the year as well as Wembley and the Challenge Cup – they’re all things to look forward to and there is pressure on the team to reach those successes.
“But at the minute we are looking really good. Pre-season has been long and hard, but hopefully that all pays off when we get going.”
Leeds’ quest for silverware gets underway on Saturday, 5th April when they host Leigh in the Challenge Cup group stages. A trip to Sheffield Eagles follows a week later, with the quarter-finals and potentially a semi-final, also set to take place before the league starts with a mouthwatering clash at St Helens to kick things off.
After making the Wembley final for the last two years, but coming up agonisingly short each time, success in the capital is something Leeds will be targeting this year, and for Bryer, if she could walk out on that hallowed turf under the Wembley arch it would be a very special moment.
“I have allowed myself to think about playing in those big games and finals,” added Bryer, who is confident that the cup campaign will prove a great way to prepare for the league campaign, which certainly starts with a bang for the Rhinos – after St Helens, they also face fellow top four sides York away and Wigan at home.
“Me and my family have been to both the finals at Wembley and I was there thinking ‘I hope this is me one day’.
“Now I have been given this opportunity at one of the top clubs I do think that will happen at some point.
“I haven’t really spoken to the girls about Wembley or what’s happened there in past. But I am sure that what has happened over the last two years will give them even more motivation to try and do better and put ourselves in the best possible position to get there again and put things right.
“We had a week off when it was the Vegas weekend but when we went back in after that we had a team meeting knowing we were just four weeks away from the first game in the Challenge Cup. So intensity is ramping up and it is all about selection and how we can put ourselves in the best position to get the shirt on the day.
“Leigh were amazing in the Championship last season. I came up against them in the Promotion/Relegation Play-Off Final and they were full of energy.
“They have some very strong runners and it’s the same with Sheffield, they have some great players and have added a couple from York too. Both teams will be exciting to play and they will both be up for the challenge.
“We certainly have a big start in the league too. Playing the top teams, some away from home, really opens the season up for us in style and shows us exactly where we are and if all that we’ve done in pre-season has paid off.
“It will allow us to fix up anything that doesn’t go to plan nice and early in the season, and then hopefully we can get some success on the back of that.”
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 507 (April 2025)
