Trangie’s Jill Skinner has rugby league’s highest honour selected as Australia’s coach again after the Jillaroos thumped England in the international this year in Las Vegas.

Skinner 's side decimated England 94-0 in her first time as Australian coach.

"The women's game is experiencing continued and significant growth so to be part of the journey at this level is a real honour," Skinner said.

The appointment to role was also made all the more special for Skinner given she is of both Indigenous and Māori heritage.

On her mother's side Skinner's Aboriginal bloodline is Barkindji and she is connected to the Wongaibon People of Trangie in New South Wales, while through her father she links to Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Hine in New Zealand.

“It’s been a massive goal for me and something I have always aspired to do … (and) I feel good at this particular time of my career to take on that responsibility and step into that role,” Skinner said.

“I have felt ready for a while for it, but just waiting for an opportunity to arise to take it."

She first was selected as Indigenous All Stars coach.

Skinner is rates as a top 'people manager.' [IMAGE: NRL]

“I was the first female coach of the All Stars which is really exciting and I am not saying it for just myself; but for me, I hope I am remembered for being a great coach, but it is really exciting to have a female to show other females that this is a pathway and that they can do this as well through the All Stars program.

"It’s not just a job for the boys.

“It is definitely for other women to come through and … hopefully I can be a mentor to other females coming through who want to be an All Stars coach as well.

“We have some amazing female coaches coming through our system at the moment which is exciting.”

These systems include providing opportunities all the way to the national level with former Australian coach Brad Donald enlisting both Skinner and Kate Mullaly to be his assistant coaches during the triumphant 2022 Rugby League World Cup campaign.

As a coach, Donald has won Interstate Challenge games, Test matches and Rugby League World Cup titles, but said one of the proudest moments of his career was seeing Skinner guide the Indigenous Women’s All Stars team to the win this year.

“There’s lots of elements of the coaching that she has got strengths in; technically and tactically savvy, her personal relationship with players is outstanding, her understanding of culture – team culture, First Nations culture of the players within our team, Pacific Nations culture; she’s one of those coaches that ticks all the boxes,” Donald said.

“She’s just a really good people manager.

“One of the greatest highlights of my career was to watch her team that she coached win the All Stars game against the Māori All Stars team.

“It honestly gave me shivers. I even told the chairman (Peter V’Landys) it was one of my highlights of my career.

“He said something to me along the lines of ‘you’ve won a few World Cups, it must be big, what’s going on?’ and I said Jess works for our organisation, she is my assistant coach at the Jillaroos and she’s going to win this game and it’s not because they are a better team on paper, it’s because of what she’s done and she’s a great coach.”