ST HELENS and England legend Jodie Cunningham has been appointed to a new role in the club’s women’s team.
Cunningham has been part of Saints’ Women’s set-up since its creation back in 2018, being named co-captain in 2019 before becoming sole captain two years later.
That year, Saints completed a historic treble with the Women’s Challenge Cup, League Leaders’ Shield and Super League trophies.
Cunningham herself received the Woman Of Steel award as the best player in the Women’s Super League and has since guided Saints to three consecutive Challenge Cup Final victories.
Now she has also taken up an additional role, as Saints’ head of women’s pathways and performance.
Cunningham said: “It’s an exciting new role, 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!
“Specifically leading on the women and girls game in this role hopefully, I can bring all my experience, all the development that I’ve done there to a more local level in St Helens and help grow the number of girls playing in St Helens.
“Working with the community teams to make sure that pathways are all in place so that we have the best young talent coming through and feeding into this women’s side so we we’re lifting trophies in the near future but also for many years to come as well.”
Mike Rush, St Helens’ chief executive, welcomed Cunningham to the new role: “The growth of the women’s game is fantastic and has probably been faster than most could have expected, but not for Jodie who is a true trailblazer and one of our finest ambassadors for the entire sport of rugby league.
“Jodie’s role looks at the players who are here and now, but with a firm eye on the future and how we will be bringing through even more players to develop here at Saints, to become their best at Saints. We want all our teams to succeed at the club and we keep aiming to develop our women’s team to be the very best it can be.”
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