Ella Sabljak Returns to A Current Affair After Eight Months

Ella Sabljak returned to a current affair earlier this year when she rejoined the Queensland state team at the National Wheelchair Rugby Championships in Adelaide, eight months after giving birth to her daughter Billie.

That return ended with Queensland winning the title, and it came in Sabljak’s first major tournament since Billie’s birth. She said, "I think I look at my body a lot differently now," adding, "I’ve created this human. I’ve kept this human alive from my body, and I have so much more appreciation for what my body can do."

Adelaide Showground weekend

Matt spent the championships weekend walking laps of the Adelaide Showground with Billie strapped into a baby carrier. He brought her courtside between games and training sessions, then strapped Billie back in and kept walking until she slept.

That setup turned a tournament weekend into a logistics exercise as well as a return to elite contact sport. Sabljak said, "There was probably a little bit of fear in the beginning," and added, "I don’t want to get hurt because I need to go home and hold, feed and care for my child."

Queensland's title win

Sabljak’s first major tournament back also showed how quickly the competitive edge returned. She said, "I didn’t realise how much I missed playing until I was actually competing again," then added, "Then when I was out there, I just wanted to win. It unlocked that part of me that I hadn’t felt in almost two years."

The Queensland result fit a larger shift around the sport: motherhood is being lived alongside high performance, not kept outside it. Sabljak said, "I want to make sure that I’m strong and healthy so I can pick my daughter up off the floor and carry her around for a long time."

Emilie Miller's path

Emilie Miller was navigating a different route to motherhood while continuing to train and compete at the highest level. She and her husband were privately working through a long and emotional surrogacy journey, a process few around the team knew was happening.

With the Australian Wheelchair Rugby team building toward another World Championship campaign, the practical takeaway is plain: elite preparation is no longer being written as separate from family life. Sabljak’s return shows that the balance now sits inside the competition calendar itself, with childcare, travel and recovery all moving with the athlete rather than behind her.