Why this historic All Stars appointment means so much to former Western coach

She left that campaign knowing she was on the right career path and it led her to set herself two main goals for the future.

One was to be part of the Australian Jillaroos coaching staff and the, rather than an NRLW head coach's role, was to lead the Indigenous All Stars women's side.

In the space of five years, the mother of two from Trangie has ticked both those boxes.

After being named a Jillaroos assistant coach in 2022, Skinner was recently announced to lead the All Stars side which will take on the Maori All Stars at Townsville on Friday, February 16.

"I've been working a lot to get to this place and I'm really proud and excited about it and I'm definitely ready for it too," she said.

Having both Aboriginal and Maori heritage makes it all the more special for Skinner.

"My dad's Maori, my mum's Aboriginal," she said.

"So the week itself is extremely special and it's really hard to explain to people that it's beyond the game unless you've experienced it yourself.

"There's the week of connecting with the community and I'm really excited to head to Townsville to connect with those guys there.

"It's a really special space and, for me, I think the drive to be in this space over NRLW was that the pathways for the All Stars program.

"It's not just the one week, it's actually a whole year program that's around it and I've been working in that space for the last two years within the NRL. This is like the last piece of the puzzle to bring that whole pathway program together."

Having originally started out coaching at Trangie and Warren, Skinner progressed to the Western Rams role before making her way up further in the game.

She's had coaching roles at the First Nations Gems and the NRL Indigenous Women's Academy while she was also an assistant with the Newcastle Knights NRLW squad in 2021.

She's currently a pathways strategy manager with the NRL with a focus on Indigenous and female players.

Helping ensure opportunities for the next generation means a huge amount to Skinner and it's something she's keen to share with her All Stars players when they get into camp next month.

"We always think about the future players coming through," she said.

"We always say that we're playing not for ourselves, but for our mob and our communities, but we're also playing for those little girls that now have a really clear pathway to be successful in this sport and we always carry that with us.

"We're also setting up this current playing group for a really successful year to be really strong, First Nations women and to lead in this space and be proud of who they are and take that back into their clubs and their other teams that they're a part of throughout the year.

"We also want to be able to win the game at the end of the week as well."

There's already a huge amount of excitement around the All Stars match but, as always, it's not all Skinner has on her agenda right now.

She's currently enjoying some time off at home in Trangie but this coming Sunday she will run a free coaching workshop for all Castlereagh League, Group 14 Junior Rugby League and Castlereagh Women's Rugby League clubs at Gilgandra.

The idea came about last year after Skinner, Clayton Cup-winning Gulgong captain-coach Brad James and Castlereagh League secretary Bryson Luff spoke about the success of the competition at the NSW Rugby League community conference.

"We sort of looked at each other (afterwards) and said we do some amazing stuff out here and we could probably do some more," Skinner said.

"One of the things was bringing in coaches and doing some personal development. Spending the day with them and looking at all things like structuring a session through to coaching a female athlete.

"I'm really looking forward to it. It's a really big passion of mine, Castlereagh, and that's where it all started for me."