That's a Duzzi of a milestone: Another Broncos 'OG' hits 50

Think Ali Brigginshaw and Chelsea Lenarduzzi, think Batman and Robin, Mario and Luigi, Bonnie and Clyde.

A pair of rugby league trailblazers who are best of friends, passionate Queenslanders and fiercely competitive.

The dynamic duo played in the first Broncos team in 2018, so it’s only fitting that Lenarduzzi notches her 50th NRLW game a week after Brigginshaw became the first to hit the milestone in last Saturday's win over the Eels.

“It was one of those things that the best thing for her was for us to just come out and do our jobs and everyone seemed to do that, which was really good and we had a lot of fun,” Lenarduzzi said of Brigginshaw's milestone match.

“Win at Suncorp, Indigenous Round… it was a fairytale moment, to be honest. And in typical Ali form, she just cared that we got the win, so it was good to do that for her.”

On being next to hit the milestone, Lenarduzzi said it was “pretty cool” but not something that was front-of-mind for her.

“Fifty games is a lot but eight seasons is probably more of the achievement… if we had more games then we’d be over 200, if we were like the men,” she said.

“Ali has been in all of mine and I only missed one of hers. She couldn’t let me have one thing (laughs)… she had to play every game and beat me at another thing.”

Lenarduzzi, who turns 30 in November, said she was always confident she could have a long career in the game.

“I've always wanted to be a professional athlete so once it started to happen, I just tried to do something every year that would help my longevity and to be able to stay in the system and at the Broncos,” she said.

“I'm living my dream of being a professional athlete and being a rugby league player, so I want to stay in that as long as possible.”

Lenarduzzi, who mastered her craft at the Burleigh Bears, said it blew her mind that she was considered a role model for young players coming through.

“We played a team this year and a player said to me, ‘You were my favourite growing up’. And I was just like, ‘Um what?’… thinking about it, she was only 18 so she was 10 (when we started),” Lenarduzzi said.

“So she did watch the comp growing up, which is such a weird sort of transition for us to have girls that watched us growing up, but that’s pretty cool.”

An overwhelmed Brigginshaw said the amount of support she had received was “absolutely phenomenal” and she could not wait to celebrate her mate Lenarduzzi in Round 8 against the Knights.

“I think all these things don't quite sink in until it's done, but just to make 50... I dreamed of just playing one and now I got to play 50 and I'm still love my footy more than ever, so I consider myself very lucky," Brigginshaw said steering her side to a 38-4 win over the Eels.

“Chelsea’s been one of the OGs and she just chips away… she works extremely hard with everything she does and she's one of my best mates, so it's pretty cool to do it alongside her.

“We're talking about 50 today, but we're going to talk about Shalom (Sauaso) or one of those young girls, Reegan Hicks, hitting 300… we'll talk about those milestones.

"We've laid a platform now and now we're recognising milestone games, I'm just super proud to be a part of it and I can't wait to watch my teammates reach them.”