The change of heart began with a simple message of support to the US women's rugby league national team, wishing the freshly-minted Redtails all the best ahead of their opening regional 2026 World Cup qualifier.

But the reality is circumstances behind Tallisha Harden's latest desire to switch allegiances from the world champion Jillaroos to one of the game's backwaters only came about because of her maternal Hawaiian ancestry.

The other half of Harden's lineage was curated a near world away in the Torres Strait.

The islands off Cape York is something of a backwater on the world map, but the tiny Torres Strait community on the mainland is steeped in the Australian game's success.

Harden, a tough forward like the name suggests, has contributed to that with three tries in just four Tests, the most recent in the 2023 Pacific Championships, but no appearances in two past World Cups since debuting way back in 2015.

The American women have not competed in any either, and Harden, who has played for four NRLW teams, including captaining the 2023 North Queensland Cowboys, and won a 2020 premiership with Brisbane Broncos, wants to rewrite a new chapter in her international story.

"I have been in contact with USA women's rugby league head coach Ady Cooney since late last year, just to kind of express an interest in getting involved," she told NRL.com.

"I've had some initial chats with him, just to see what that might look like, also with the possibility of maybe helping out on the coaching or mentoring side of things.

"We've talked about my eligibility a little bit, as my grandfather is Hawaiian on my mum's side.

"We have got lots of extended family still in Hawaii, so that's really cool that I might get to possibly represent that side of my family."

The one-time junior international volleyballer of note has played rugby league across the last decade after a brief stint previously in rugby union.

But along the lines of wanting to represent her culture, the 31-year-old is feeling more connected to Indigenous All Stars that she also skippered this year and played seven times for than fighting for a spot in the Jillaroos World Cup team when she's three years older.

Harden more than willing to take advantage of the sport's newly adapted loosening of international eligibility rules that allows most players – both male and female – to transfer from one nation to another and back again over consecutive calendar years.

That does not end her Australian career between dual representation, however the focus seems to be on the stars and stripes across the Pacific.

"Whether I'd play a small part in that, as a player or a coach, I'm just grateful to even be having that conversation," Harden said.

"My granddad, as I said, is a proud Hawaiian man and a lot of my aunties, my uncles and my cousins based here in Australia have gone over to Molokai (island of Hawaii) and reconnected with our family there; whether that be reunions or trips over individually.

"It's been pretty awesome, but I have also missed out on all of them, though, because it usually happens during the NRLW."

Cooney, the 48-year-old Yorkshire man based out of California, readily admits even as the US head coach it is hard not to be swept up in Harden's unbridled enthusiasm.

"She seems super pumped to get involved with the women's game out here, both as a player and beyond that," Cooney said.

The transplanting of their Australian star through Harden's cultural heritage to the 2026 World Cup is unlikely to be an issue, but the Americans still have to win over Brazil in November to join other continental qualifiers in a final 2025 world series event to claim a World Cup stake the next year.

Cooney said the Redtails – the moniker replacing the Hawks for each of US national rugby league teams – were taken by surprise by Harden's message last September days ahead of a 78-8 win against Jamaica.

"It was a really good motivational thing for the girls – I don't think they expected it at all," he said.

"Conversations have continued since then and (Harden) said she's willing to do whatever was necessary to try and make that team to play.

"She knows there will be competition and she isn't necessarily a walk in, which I fully respect, but she seems super pumped to get involved with the women's game out here, both as a player and beyond that."