Jillaroos star Sam Bremner has revealed how one word sparked her career-best form.

The 30-year-old was named player of the match in Australia’s 74-nil win over Cook Islands after scoring four tries, getting two linebreaks, six tackle busts and running for a game-high of 175 metres.

It had been six years since Bremner had represented her country after an injury robbed her of the opportunity in the 2017 World Cup.

But she showed no signs of rust. In fact she just mirrored the form seen in the NRLW just six weeks earlier.

Bremner returned to the NRLW via the Roosters after missing the 2021 season due to the birth of her second child and took the ‘best fullback in the game’ mantle off Emma Tonegato, who was a duel winner of the Dally M medal that season.

She was pivotal to the Roosters’ undefeated run during the regular season, playing all but nine minutes and was named the Dally M Fullback of the Year.

Prior to the 2022 NRLW season, Tonegato was tipped to play fullback for the Jillaroos, but Bremner fought hard for that jersey — and won.

Speaking to Fox League’s Jake Duke in the lead-up to Australia’s World Cup opener Bremner revealed just how much the title ‘former Jillaroo’ stung while she was sidelined.

“I didn’t mean for myself to get so offended by it,” she said.

“I’d see in the newspaper or on TV ‘former Jillaroo Sam Bremner’. I would just think ‘I’m having a baby, I haven’t quit, I’ll let you know when I’ve retired.’

“I knew I could do two things about it. Instead of whinging, I could either work my butt off to get back to a position where people wouldn’t call me a former Jillaroo anymore or I could accept the fact that I was a former Jillaroo on other people’s terms and just get over it.

“I chose to fight my way back into these colours and I’m happy that I did.”

Bremner is sharing the captaincy duties with halfback Ali Brigginshaw and second-rower Kezie Apps, but had the honour of leading the Jillaroos out for their clash with the Cook Islands.

It’s a role that she takes very seriously.

“This jersey means a lot to me and so do the values that it upholds so I’ll almost certainly do anything I can alongside Kezzie and Ali to make sure that everyone understands those values, everyone understands what this jersey means and what it means to be a Jillaroo on and off the field,” Bremner said.

“Hopefully when I do become a former Jillaroo, I’ve helped instil some of those things into the younger players.”

The Jillaroos take on France in their second group match on Monday 7 November at 6.30am AEDT.