Central North Rugby: Erika Maslen to miss Pirates' season opener for Glen Innes Barbell's Olympic weightlifting event

While her Pirates team-mates are tackling Quirindi in their season opener on Saturday, the forward will be competing in the Glen Innes Barbell's open Olympic weightlifting competition.

The event was last year the first she ever competed in, and will be a qualifying opportunity for the state championships later in the year.

Maslen originally got into weightlifting during her rehabilitation from an ACL injury as a way to keep active and healthy while she "wasn't able to run".

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"I was going to do power lifting but one of the coaches there (at Snake Crossfit) said to do Olympic lifting instead because it transfers better over to the rugby field," Maslen said.

"It's sharp, snappy, you're not repping out a five second bench press, you're repping out a two second snatch instead."

Initially she only planned to do it while she was rehabbing, but she enjoyed it so much that she has continued post her return to the footy field and said she can see herself "doing it for a long time".

Part of that has been challenging herself in something new. She is still now learning something new every training session, she said.

Rugby though is still Maslen's first love.

One of the region's most promising talents, the 18-year old's dreams are seemingly within her reach.

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Earlier this year she was approached by the Waratahs about joining their Super W squad as a back up hooker.

Something she has long been dreaming of - playing Super W - head ended up ruling over heart and she didn't take the opportunity up.

She just felt she wasn't "in a position to".

"I'd love to be able to take the opportunity up one day," she said.

"But now isn't the right time."

She would have had to find a job and place to live, and Sydney "is expensive", let alone when you are only on apprentice wages. She is in her second year of a cabinet making apprenticeship.

It wasn't, Maslen admitted, something she saw herself doing, but she is "loving it".

"We're only really small so I'm not getting stuck on one thing and just doing that one thing. I'm learning everything," she said.

It's one of the things that kept her in Tamworth, with the Hunter Wildfires also scouting her about playing for them.

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"I'd love to be able to finish my apprenticeship before I think about moving anywhere," she said.

She was also conscious of the fact that she hasn't played a lot of footy in the last two years, and doesn't have that much 15s experience.

"I'd love to get a couple of seasons of 15-a-side under my belt before I have to go down there and play at a high level all the time," she said.

It is though nice to know she is on the radar, she said.

For now her focus is on Pirates, and after missing the majority of last season (she had just come back when the season was abandoned) she can't wait for the season.

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