I was forced to face my own hypocrisy recently.

It’s not a comfortable place to be in and I’m still not quite sure about how I feel about the whole thing.

I like to think of myself as a strong woman, one who champions women’s rights, equality, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Mum told me that when I was a little girl, I decided to ditch my pretty dresses and curls and play rough with the boys in the dirt.

Later, as I got older, I worked out I could keep the hair and the pretty clothes and play rough in the dirt anyway – it was all a matter of the right fabric wash.

I played sport hard, did my best to match it with the boys and when the opportunity arose (which wasn’t often, you have to remember I am quite uncoordinated), I beat them.

The short story is, I’m all for girl power. Until one of my very best friends told me she had signed up for women’s rugby league.

As in tackling, push your face in the dirt, might-pay-to-have-a-plastic-surgeon-on-call rugby league.

And my first reaction was – why? Now I know that it is becoming quite popular.
And the Sunshine Coast team is doing quite well for its maiden season. But when I think of women playing rugby league, I think of, well, Oztag.

You know – the one that doesn’t involve shoving faces into dirt.

Not that I have a problem with dirty faces. Or with women forming their own competition – I mean, it’s not as if they are being thrown head first by the Broncos or even Broncos in training or anything like that. It’s a fair match up.

And by all accounts, my friend is really enjoying it. She gave up part of a girls' weekend to be there for her team – very commendable – and when she eventually joined us, she was dressed in old sweats, was a little dirty and, honestly, her hair had seen better days – but she was beaming.

She may not be their best runner, or tackler (she told me she’d been practically picked up and carried bodily from the field) but she is having a ball.

And faced with her obvious enthusiasm, I’ve just had to get over it.

I still don’t understand why she is playing.

I mean, there are plenty of other sports out there for both women and men and I wouldn’t have thought that league was at the top of the list for the fairer sex.

But what really needs to change is my own attitude towards women playing what I have always considered a man’s game. I have to just re-adjust my Amy-cam a bit.

Because there is no good reason why she shouldn’t be playing – she is enjoying it, her team are having a blast and if men can do it, why can’t women?

The only thing stopping these girls is people with attitudes like mine. And I have to admit that faced with that – it smarts a little.

But if she does break her nose, I can’t promise to hold back on the told you so.