Honey Hireme-Smiler wanted to get in one more World Cup before she hung up her boots but after nearly 20 years as an elite athlete this year had tested her body like never before.
Photo: PHOTOSPORT
After four Rugby League World Cups, as well as Rugby World Cup and a Rugby Sevens World Cup, Hireme-Smiler had plans to make it to a seventh world event at next year's Rugby League World Cup in the United Kingdom.
Hireme-Smiler had made it through her career mostly injury-free so a succession of injuries this year made the 39-year-old reconsider her future.
In the last 12 months she injured her knee, foot, groin and shoulder - twice.
So after 18 seasons and 32 tests with the Kiwi Ferns, Hireme-Smiler retired following this month's victory over Fetu Samoa.
"I definitely wanted to stick around for that Rugby League World Cup but the injuries played a big part in my decision," Hireme-Smiler said.
Uncertainty surrounding whether international events will go ahead in a Covid-19 environment also weighed on Hireme-Smiler's mind.
"For me it was like do I put myself through another 12 months of pretty rigourous training and discipline for a competition that may or may not happen.
"Also the way that I was playing the game wasn't to my own standard, as I've aged I'm probably not as explosive and as fast as I wanted to be. I just felt I wanted to leave on a high and not hang on to something that was eventually going to catch up with me."
Hireme-Smiler will be remembered as one of the greats of the game.
She made her Kiwi Ferns debut against the New Zealand Maori in a non-Test match in 2002, scored 10 tries at the following year's World Cup and was named in the Team of the Tournament.
Kiwi Ferns fixtures were scarce in the ensuing years, but the blockbusting centre was one of several players to back up for their successful World Cup title defence in 2008.
She was named most valuable player at the 2013 Rugby League World Cup and was highest try scorer of the 2017 Rugby League World Cup - crossing the line 13 times, more than double her closest rival.
Honey Hireme playing at the 2014 Rugby World Cup. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
In 2013, she also first played for the New Zealand women's rugby team and the national rugby sevens team appearing in one world cup for each code and won titles with the Black Ferns sevens.
Born in Putaruru, Hireme-Smiler grew up playing a mix of league and rugby and said moving between the codes at the elite level was easier for her than it would be for athletes now.
"Once both games got towards the professional era it was a lot harder to transition between the three, there was years where I could play the Black Ferns and Black Ferns Sevens and the Kiwi Ferns because we weren't professionally paid as such but then as the game has evolved and we're all signing contracts we specialise in a game so we are not able to transition between the two," Hireme-Smiler said.
Her ability on both the league and rugby field earnt her the nickname of Honey-Bill in reference to cross-code star Sonny Bill Williams who played for the All Blacks and the Kiwis.
Sonny Bill Williams playing for the Kiwis. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Hireme-Smiler said she admired Williams' feats on the field and the way he carried himself off it but the moniker was not something she sought.
"I didn't get a choice in the matter really, unfortunately we are labeled with something and it just kinda sticks," she said.
"It's been somewhat of a privilege to carry that label, all those comparisons with Sonny Bill."
Despite the comparisons to her male counterpart, Hireme-Smiler has had to forge her own path in the women's game.
Honey Hireme-Smiler against Fetu Samoa. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
"When I was young I didn't get to see to all these female athletes on TV that I could aspire to but now there's so much female sport being seen on TV that young girls can aspire to be like and I think that's just so important for the female sporting space.
"Society is really changing in their want and need for it as well which is really great."
Juggling family life with professional sport was only possible because of her family, Hireme-Smiler said.
"Being a mum I've absolutely had a village help me raise my son and I'm from a blended family between me and my wife we have three teenage boys now and again it's the village that has supported that from family members to family friends from my coaches to everyone who has been involved in my career and that's how you create balance by creating a really close support network."
Honey Hireme-Smiler in the World Cup Nines in 2019. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Playing through the pain
Hireme-Smiler's retirement nearly came a year earlier.
After playing for St George Illawarra in the inaugural NRLW premiership she signed for with the Warriors but sat out the 2019 NRLW campaign to be with her mother, Caryn, who passed away on September 25 last year.
"Definitely I had my plans on stopping last year, but my Mum said I needed to keep going because I had trained so hard last year and throughout her illness and caring for her I was training with the mindset that I was going to get back out on the field and I knew that's what Mum wanted.
"Even though I missed NRLW I went straight into the World Cup Nines and had the honour of captaining the Black Ferns for that and the Test match following, so it was probably a big part of the process of helping me go through my own grief process was getting back out on that field and doing what I know Mum would have wanted me to do."
Hireme-Smiler missed the 2020 NRLW Warriors campaign in Australia due to injury but represented the Upper Central Stallions as they took out the inaugural NZRL National Women's Championship.
Now that her lengthy professional sports career is over Hireme-Smiler plans to keep active in a different way and enjoy a packet of biscuits before dinner.
"I'm not jumping into anything too quickly I would like to look at something around some individual sports maybe athletics and running and I've enjoyed squash in the past but it'll be nothing strenuous.
"I've been asked to do the Coast to Coast which I've flat out refused I'm not doing anything crazy like that that's for sure."