Amber Pilley (born 8 December 1997) was an Australian rugby league footballer who played for the Brisbane Broncos in the NRL Women's Premiership and Burleigh Bears in the

QRL Women's Premiership The QRL Women's Premiership, known as the BMD Premiership due to sponsorship from BMD Group, is the top level of women's rugby league football in Queensland, Australia. Run by the Queensland Rugby League, the competition is Queensland's first s ...

. Primarily a , she was a Queensland representative.

Background

Born in Campbelltown, New South Wales, Pilley moved to the

Gold Coast, Queensland The Gold Coast is a coastal city in the state of Queensland, Australia, approximately south-southeast of the centre of the state capital Brisbane. With a population over 600,000, the Gold Coast is the sixth-largest city in Australia, the nati ...

with her family when she was two. She played junior rugby league for the Nerang Roosters and is of Indigenous descent.

Playing career

In 2014, Pilley represented Australia in rugby sevens at the

2014 Summer Youth Olympics The 2014 Summer Youth Olympics (), officially known as the II Summer Youth Olympic Games , and commonly known as Nanjing 2014 ( zh, c=南京2014, p=Nánjīng Èr Líng yī sì), were the second Summer Youth Olympic Games, an international sports ...

, winning a gold medal. In 2015, she represented the Indigenous All Stars. That year, she tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) ruling her out for 12 months. In 2017, Pilley joined the Burleigh Bears and represented the Indigenous All Stars. In June 2018, she played for South East Queensland at the Women's National Championships. In August 2018, she joined the Brisbane Broncos NRL Women's Premiership team. In Round 1 of the

2018 NRL Women's season The 2018 NRL Women's Premiership (NRLW) was the first season of professional women's rugby league in Australia. Teams Pre-season Only two of the four sides, the Brisbane Broncos and New Zealand Warriors, took part in pre-season trial games. T ...

, Pilley made her debut for the Broncos in a 30–4 win over the

St George Illawarra Dragons The St. George Illawarra Dragons is an Australian professional rugby league football club, representing both the Illawarra and St George, Sydney, St George regions of New South Wales. The club has competed in the National Rugby League since NR ...

. On 30 September 2018, she started at in the Broncos' 34–12 Grand Final win over the

Sydney Roosters The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional Rugby league, Rugby League Football Club based in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) and parts of inner Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. The Roosters have won ...

. On 21 June 2019, Pilley made her debut for Queensland, starting at in their 4–14 loss to

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. On 6 October 2019, Pilley won her second NRLW Grand Final, starting at in a 30–6 win over the

. In 2020, Pilley missed the entire season after tearing her ACL,

medial collateral ligament The medial collateral ligament (MCL), or tibial collateral ligament (TCL), is one of the four major ligaments of the knee. It is on the medial (inner) side of the knee joint in humans and other primates. Its primary function is to resist outwar ...

(MCL) and

meniscus Meniscus may refer to: * Meniscus (anatomy), crescent-shaped fibrocartilaginous structure that partly divides a joint cavity * Meniscus (liquid), a curve in the upper surface of liquid contained in an object *Meniscus (optics) A lens is a ...

References

External links

Burleigh Bears profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pilley, Amber 1997 births Living people Australian female rugby league players Brisbane Broncos (NRLW) players Indigenous Australian rugby league players Queensland Rugby League State of Origin Women players Rugby league centres Rugby sevens players at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics Rugby league players from Sydney Sportswomen from New South Wales