Pursuit of perfection: Why a record-breaking season isn't enough for Hale

“Not quite good enough.”

That is Georgia Hale’s response when shown data that reveals she missed just six of the 507 tackles she attempted this past NRLW season.

It's an output nobody in the women's game got close to matching in 2023, while the 28-year-old's 98.8 percent tackle efficiency for the season places her among the game's elite defenders, regardless of gender. 

But that doesn't satisfy her. Instead, she’s quietly annoyed at the margin – slim as it is – which sat between her and perfection.

“Six [missed] tackles is a big number to me. Hopefully next year I can get it to 100 percent efficiency,” Hale tells NRL.com with a look that tells you there's nothing tounge in cheek about her statement. 

“No player is perfect and we can’t settle for where we are at.

“I want to be the best and be the best in my position. Areas like that I look forward to fixing up in the future.”

To put her missed tackle numbers into perspective, no other NRLW player who made over 200 tackles last season had fewer than nine missed tackles, with the rest of the top five tacklers in 2023 all having over double the misses of Hale. 

Not only did she do it far more efficiently than the rest, she also averaged more tackles than any other player in the competition's history, averaging 45 per game to break her previously held single season record of 44.2 from the previous year and smash Simaima Taufa’s mark of 40.6 from the 2021 campaign.

The Titans and Kiwi Ferns skipper is now the all-time leading tackler in the NRLW with 1100 and has just 27 misses to her name since 2018. 

In that time she's transitioned from the halves to lock and excelled as a middle forward, despite her 68kg frame being the lightest among full-time middle forwards in the competition.

While being considerably smaller than most she is tackling in that position should be a disadvantage, former Kiwi Ferns coach Justin Morgan – who was instrumental in Hale making the move to the No.13 jersey – says he's not surprised it hasn't been. 

"She's a goer. What Georgia lacks in physicality she makes up for in enthusiasm," Morgan tells NRL.com. 

"Technically she’s really good in defence, which makes up for the body weight she gives up to other middle forwards.

"She has always been a great defender. She's a really good wrestler and a great communicator in the tackle. She's also really aggressive and a natural born leader.

"She’s worked really hard on it too.  

Georgia is an elite player. Men or women, she’s in the top bracket.

Justin Morgan former Kiwi Ferns coach

"People that have coached her have said to me that if they were picking a team of men or women, she’d be in it regardless." 

The move to reinvent herself over the past five seasons has required plenty of sacrifice, with Hale having no choice but to "develop a little bit of a love for the gym" and try whatever possible to put on weight, which includes attempting to fit in five meals a day. 

But it's also a move which she says probably saved her career when it was at a crossroads back at the end of 2017, when as a half and the side's vice-captain she was left out of the Kiwi Ferns team to face Australia in the World Cup final. 

"That moment in 2017 when I wasn’t a feature, I don’t think I was playing any brand of footy that I was proud of," Hale says. 

Looking back on it, I probably wouldn’t be in the position I am in today if it wasn’t for [being dropped], so I am thankful for that.

Georgia Hale

"I played a little bit of half, a little bit of hooker, but I just don’t think I found my best.

"It was a bit of a make or break move to play lock and it kind of steered me into a new direction."

Now, as she balances life between the Gold Coast and Yorkshire in the United Kingdom – where partner Sam Lisone plays for the Leeds Rhinos – Hale, who grew up idolising Warriors great Simon Mannering, wants to be known as the world's premier female lock. 

After helping the Titans to a maiden grand final appearance in 2023 which ultimately ended in defeat, she will be back on deck next year to try and help them go one better and to try and achieve that elusive personal goal of a perfect defensive season.