She did it when she headed over to the other side of the country to pursue her hockey dream, and again when having never played a game of 15s rugby she found herself playing in the Super W competition.

Even last year playing with Pirates in the New England women's 7s competition was something of an unknown.

Now she is preparing to do it again - on a couple of different fronts.

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On Friday night she will be among around 40 hopefuls trialing for a berth in the Greater Northern Tigers women's squad.

Nielsen hasn't played league before.

But it seemed a good opportunity to experience something new and expand her skills - a philosophy that has already opened up unexpected doors for her.

Looking further ahead she is looking to relocate to Sydney as her rugby journey takes her in another new and exciting direction.

The Pirates star has been training with the Sydney University AON 7s program ahead of this year's competition, which is set to kick-off in late March.

For a while too she was training with the NSW Waratahs women's development squad.

But that was suspended amid the outbreaks in Sydney just before Christmas.

It is a perfect example of one of those 'unexpected doors'.

She only really attended the trials for the Country side for the experience; she wasn't expecting it to lead any further. Now she finds herself of the periphery of the the best women's team in the country (the Waratahs have won all three editions of the Super W competition), which she admits is a bit surreal.

"It's been awesome, even though we only got three sessions in," Nielsen said.

"I wasn't sure what to expect but it's super skills based and things that can transfer across to every training session."

Training on a Wednesday night with them she would usually travel down on Monday night or Tuesday morning and train with the AON squad on Tuesday night. In between she would do some work with one of the Country coaches, who is based in Wollongong, before returning to Tamworth late Thursday.

As things "start ramping up" she is preparing to make the move more permanent.

It is she admits a bit daunting, although Sydney is a lot closer to home than Perth, but at the same time exciting.

"There's just so many options for me personally, and so many girls," she said.

If she doesn't make the AON side there will be the chance to play in the Sydney 7s competition, and possibly the Jack Scott Cup.

"I feel like I'm quite blinkered, I just look towards the next step," Nielsen said, adding that "it feels quite continuous".

Sadly for Pirates supporters, it means it's probably the last they've seen of her in the black and gold, for now anyway, although she is planning to have a run with them at next weekend's Santos Festival of Rugby.