The Indigenous rugby sevens troupe that tours Australia and sometimes the world is battling against a cash drain to develop their mission, but not against talent.

The schoolgirls in particular have that in spades, individually at least, and that is the ultimate purpose of the altruistic concept behind the Lloyd McDermott Development Rugby Team.

"There's a general pathway around the sevens' space and I think sevens really suit our girls' style of football: open play, small numbers on the field and it is where they get to showcase their talent and speed – and that's what we've got," Lloydies team manager Dylan Blackman said.

"You can't coach speed in rugby and a lot of our girls have that."

The rushed return to last year's Australian Schools rugby championships of the Lloydies girls – named after the second Aboriginal to be capped for the Wallabies against the All Blacks in 1962 who stepped aside in protest the next year for the tour of Apartheid South Africa never to play again – was collectively a rude awakening.

But performances turned around 12 months later for players from small towns but with big hearts representing proud mobs against a series of state teams each from New South Wales and Queensland and also the best from the ACT.

"When we go to these championships, I let them know it's not about that we're here to win a championship," Blackman said.

The Lloydies under-18 open schoolgirls won just once from six starts at the sevens' section of the championships that extends to the 15-a-side union game while the under-16s juniors added two wins, and while those records don't evoke belief of a full turnaround this year, in the defence the four junior losses they were all by seven points or less.

Blackman said the Lloydies staff set realistic expectations compared to the structured state teams to "just turn up and have a go" and "show what we play hard for", tugging on the pride of their cultural heartstrings over tactical heads.

In the end, the real results that mattered was having four young, aspiring Indigenous females being included in the two Australian merit teams.

That was the prize. That was for the win.

"The scores really doesn't mean anything to us and we don't care much about the outcome – we just care about giving them the opportunity of growth at this level to our people," Blackman said.

"For us, to have three girls from the 16s and one girl from the 18s in the Australia merit team, that was just a massive achievement for us."

For Aaliyah Sheppard, the open national selection capped off a bonus birthday present on the day for the Canterbury College student.

Sheppard will head to the 2024 Global Youth Sevens in Auckland with the Australian side in December.

While Aamira Renouf from Caloundra State High School, Ella Zae Elers from Hunter Sports High School and Taliah Anderson, of Keebra Park State High School, were named in the junior merit team.

But unlike Sheppard, the closest these trio will get to represent Australia is possibly to be included in the open training camp later in the year.

Blackman was also bullish about missing arguably the most talented Indigenous sevens teenager when former touch footballer Rhani Hagan was picked for a semi-professional tour of Japan with an Australia A side over representing Lloydies on the Sunshine Coast.

"She's the next future of sevens for Indigenous kids," Blackman said.

"To be asked to go and play for Australia A in Japan is like a massive achievement, and she has only just converted over to rugby 14-15 months ago."

Blackman insisted a three-day pre-tournament camp this year emphasised more on "hanging out together" culturally than on a strict training schedule.

"Compared to last year when it was our first year back in the national champs, this year the girls have had a lot of fun and just connected a lot better together," he said.

The Lloyd McDermott Development Rugby Team foundation has increased its girls presence arguably to the detriment of boys sevens players where they have produced current Wallaby talent Dylan Pietsch and Olympic sevens veteran Maurice Longbottom in the past.

The quick-paced sevens rugby has proven a more attractive proposition to most rugby girls without a heavy emphasis on the tackle, ruck, maul or scrum.

"If we get that right, we can open more opportunities and pathways for girls," Blackman said.

Established as an organisation to promote Indigenous rugby to provide opportunities and education from the direction of McDermott, Australia's first Aboriginal barrister, Lloydies has reshaped the ways rugby union in Australia discover, harness and develop First Nations junior players for the past 33 years.

But money is still the biggest stumbling block to competing on a level playing field of a sport most associated with the rich private schools.

At the start of each year, the annual Lloyd McDermott Rugby Development Team fundraiser is held in Sydney that calls on the generosity of rugby's backers to empty their pockets.

Blackman said applying for government grants can only go so far, but insisted the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 "really hurt Lloydies a fair bit".

"We'd love to have more funding to actually get more opportunities for our kids and that's not just with our females, but our males as well," Blackman said.

"This year we've had to focus a little bit more on the females, but it's because the sevens space is more of a general pathway."