“Welcome to Australia”.
Those words from Eels forward Jessica Kennedy helped inspire Dutch dual international Linneke Gevers to pursue an NRLW dream that has now resulted in a contract with the Broncos.
Kennedy played with Gevers two years ago in Netherlands’ World Cup qualifying campaign against Italy, Ireland and Wales and believed the rugby union convert had the ability to play in the NRLW.
So did Netherlands coach Brett Davidson, who sent highlights of her performances in the European tournament and another game against Greece across the world, catching the eye of Shaun Davison and the Tweed Seagulls.
After nine matches in Queensland’s BMD Cup, during which she won Tweed's 2025 players' player award, Gevers has been signed by the Broncos on a supplementary contract for the upcoming NRLW season.
“I stopped playing rugby union because I didn't really like it anymore, but I was doing Cross Fit and I just thought, well, ‘I need to do something else because I feel so fit’,” Gevers told NRL.com.
“Then a friend took me to rugby league training, and I liked it. But I also saw that they were planning to travel as well and I like to travel, so that was a huge benefit. And I thought it would be good to get into something new.”
After a few months of training the Netherlands squad jetted off to compete in their first sanctioned international match, defeating Greece 14-0 on December 9, 2023.
But it was the following April when Gevers began to believe she could turn what was originally a bit of fun into a career as the Dutch Women pushed for a World Cup spot, defeating Italy 56-6 in the RLWC2026 preliminary qualifying match.
“It was very funny because I was just playing and I didn't know what to do. I was just running and then after the game, these people (fans) came up to me and they wanted my hair tie,” Gevers said, laughing. “I was like, ‘okay, that went well then’.”
Gevers opened the try scoring against Italy, before etching her name in the history books with the most tries scored (three) by a Dutch player in one match, equal with London Broncos fullback Nicole Kennedy.
But it wasn’t until her next match and some encouraging words from Nicole’s sister, Jessica Kennedy, who was playing for Wests Tigers at the time, that Gevers started to seriously consider the possibility of a move to Australia.
“She (Kennedy) said something like, ‘welcome to Australia’. After the match she said, ‘you need to go to Australia’,” Gevers said.
“And then I thought, ‘okay, if she's saying it and she plays for Wests Tigers, then there must be something okay with it (her performance)’, so I started really thinking about it after the Ireland game.”
With no women’s rugby league clubs in the Netherlands at the time, and the squad losing out to Ireland and Wales in the World Cup qualifiers, Gevers only option to continue playing was union so she moved to Spain for a stint.
In the background, Davidson was trying to find her a club and the Seagulls decided to take a risk by offering Gevers an opportunity that would “change it all”.
After a gruelling 80-day wait for an Australian visa, Gevers booked her flight as soon as she received an acceptance email and moved to the Gold Coast.
“I didn't have a house. I didn't have anything. That was my last money, too,” she said.
“The Seagulls put me up in a hotel and then after a week, this family that lives in Pottsville and are involved in Seagulls came up to me, and said ‘I heard you are looking for a place. You can stay with us, if you want’, and I'm still with them nine months in.
“There’s so many people who did so many crazy things for me and there's so many good people here that helped me and I think that it’s very important to say, that I'm so grateful because I could never be where I am now without them, without their help, so it's really cool.”
After just one season with the Seagulls, Gevers’ passion, determination and willingness have paid off and her brother Mavi believes she could have a similar influence on future generations of Netherlands athletes as All Blacks star Fabian Holland.
“I remember listening to a podcast from Fabian Holland that he was doing in the Netherlands with another Dutch athlete, and he explained how him reaching the All Blacks has made an impact on the youth in the Netherlands, by showing, it was possible," Mavi Gevers said.
“And now children are actually saying that they also want to be an All Black … I believe that Linneke making the NRLW could have that same effect."
As for Gevers, who has missed Christmas with her family and the birth of her best friend’s baby to pursue her dream, she cannot speak more highly of Australia and urges any other players considering making a similar move to do so.
“I think there are so many girls in the Netherlands and Europe that would do well here. We are quite big, and physical,” she said.
“I wouldn’t like to play against our height … so I would say to everyone that they should give it a crack, because you never know.”
