{"id":335602,"date":"2023-10-02T06:21:27","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T06:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=335602"},"modified":"2023-10-02T10:00:36","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T10:00:36","slug":"incredible-sacrifice-behind-knights-back-to-back-titles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=335602","title":{"rendered":"'Incredible sacrifice' behind Knights' back-to-back titles"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Knights<\/a> star and Karyn Murphy medallist Tamika Upton<\/a>, her arrival in the Hunter has brought one thing: premierships.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old came from the Broncos in 2022, having already won two grand finals in her home state.<\/p>\n

However, the Dally M medallist admitted in her speech \ufefflast Wednesday<\/a> that the time away from home had been "tough".<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Reynolds apologises for grand final blunder<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Panthers CEO's slap for critics as Luai fires cheeky jab<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Selection tick as Pucovski eyes drought-ending match<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

"My family back home, I know they're supporting me back home. It's pretty tough living away from home, to be honest," she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"I need to send a special shout-out to the Southwell family<\/a> too, having a home away from home is pretty special."<\/p>\n

Following her side's emphatic 24-18 grand final victory over the Titans on Sunday, Upton doubled down on her tribute to the iconic NRLW<\/a> family.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"(This team is) so special, they're like my family away from home," she said in the sheds post-game.<\/p>\n

"I mentioned the Southwells, they honestly are home away from home and the rest of the girls buy into that.<\/p>\n

"A lot of girls relocated, we've got girls from New Zealand … obviously Georgia (Roche) coming from England is such an incredible sacrifice but the way we come together is like a big family."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\ufeffAnd now, with a united group and two premierships in a row, Upton isn't shying away from the possibility of winning a third.<\/p>\n

"Yeah definitely … we'll get the group back again, see how recruitment goes, a lot of us girls were on multi years which is really good to see and we can build from there\ufeff," she said.<\/p>\n

Whether they'll have super coach Ronald Griffiths leading them there remains to be seen after he revealed he was in conversations with the Knights about a "different role".<\/p>\n

"I'll be coaching, from my perspective\ufeff," he said.<\/p>\n

\"2023<\/p>\n

"The club have spoken to me about doing a different role, I told them I wouldn't decide until after (the grand final).<\/p>\n

"Whether I have the ability to coach this team and develop them I'm unsure, I need to work out whether I have the skill set to go again.<\/p>\n

"I will tell you one thing when I first sat down with the club I said I would love for the opportunity to take this team to three grand finals and this is still something that burns within me."<\/p>\n

\"Fists<\/p>\n

For Upton, with four premierships and five State of Origin appearances to her name, the only achievement left is a Jillaroos jersey.<\/p>\n

The fullback confirmed she's ready to go if called upon. \ufeff<\/p>\n

"Yeah (I'm available). I'm fit and healthy and that's probably the biggest thing for me this season, being able to get through a whole season," she said.<\/p>\n

"It's a long-term goal (to play for Australia). I have always said I sort of go day by day, so I'll party, celebrate and then go from there."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Knights star and Karyn Murphy medallist Tamika Upton, her arrival in the Hunter has brought one thing: premierships. The 26-year-old came from the Broncos […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":335604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335602"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=335602"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":335608,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335602\/revisions\/335608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/335604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=335602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=335602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=335602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}