A sports journo, TV producer, budding influencer and model: Meet the glamorous WAGs of the NRL Grand Final
Wives and girlfriends of Roosters and Raiders’ players were among the crowd at ANZ Stadium last night, with Cooper Cronk and Tara Rushton sharing some adorable PDA after the Roosters’ win. SEE THE PHOTOS
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A TV producer, part-time model, beauty therapist, budding Instagram influencer and a sports journo — meet the wives and girlfriends of the Sydney Roosters and Canberra Raiders.
The glamorous plus-ones were among the crowd at ANZ Stadium on NRL Grand Final night, with Roosters’ halfback Cooper Cronk and his wife, TV presenter Tara Rushton, sharing some adorable PDA on the ground after the Roosters’ premiership win over the Raiders.
Fox Sports host Rushton shared a kiss with Cronk, who retired after last night’s 14-8 victory and was carried off the ground by his teammates Boyd Cordner and Jard Waerea-Hargreaves.
“From a young kid watching footy I’ve been blessed to be able play this game and it’s just a humbling experience to be able to live out a dream and to be able to have some success at the end of it,” Cronk said after the match.
Cronk added: “But I’ll tell you what, I’m ready for retirement, I’ve had enough and these grey hairs are getting too much.”
In May, Cronk, 35, told Fox Sports that “life has never been better”.
“My wife is the best thing that has ever happened to me,” Cronk said of Rushton, also 35.
“Since the day we met, honestly I wake up with a smile on my face and I go to bed at night happy.
“My wife and my son are the two people that I see first and say goodnight to last.”
Perth-born Rushton is an accomplished TV journo in her own right, covering A-League soccer and hosting Sunday Shootout, and has more than 42,000 Instagram followers.
Also celebrating after the game was Roosters WAG Laura Aubusson, 30, who is married to Mitchell Aubusson, 32.
The journo praised her husband for having “one of your best season ever”. “Always so proud,” Laura captioned a post-GF photo on Instagram.
NRL’S GRAND FINAL WAGS
Both clubs held private team functions in Sydney afterwards, where players celebrated or commiserated with their loved ones. The Canberra wives and girlfriends flew to Sydney or took a club-arranged bus on game day for the 2.5 hour drive.
A standout at the Dally M Awards last week was Jemma Barge, 26, the girlfriend of Roosters’ captain Boyd Cordner, 27.
Barge said the couple had kept to their normal pre-match routine ahead of the Grand Final.
“I’m working all week and so is Boyd, we’re not doing anything outside our normal routine and be as rested as we can,” Barge told News Corp Australia.
And her plans for Grand Final day? “We get together with my family and his family and we all head out to the stadium together, have a bite to eat before, and all get really excited and we’ll meet up with the other Roosters families as well,” Barge said.
“That’s sort of the prep on the day.”
Wearing a high-neck gown by Velani, Barge used a stylist to pull-together her sleek and sophisticated frock for the Dally M Awards — it’s the second time she has attended with Cordner, her boyfriend of two years.
Her pre-Dally M prep included F45 workouts and a Rationale skincare regimen.
“Last year I picked one of the first couple of dresses that I tried on,” Barge said. “This year, I wanted to be a bit more prepared and start earlier because I wanted to wear a certain type of dress.”
Barge works as a production co-ordinator for Studio 10 and is a part-time model (“it’s on the side, right now, I don’t do it was much as I used to”).
She praised the other NRL WAGs for their Dally M style: “Each and every one of them looked beautiful and I definitely think they upped the ante this year”.
For Laura Aubusson, 30, who is married to Roosters’ player Mitchell Aubusson, 32, Grand Final week didn’t include the red carpet (she skipped the Dally M Awards).
“It’s about keeping the lead-up as normal as any other game of football and helping them prepare in their best way — whether that’s giving them a bit of space or spending time together as a distraction,” reporter Laura, 30, told News Corp Australia.
“For a grand final there is a lot of buzz and atmosphere to soak up but we just try and avoid too much hype”.
Laura, who is nearly 37 weeks pregnant with the couple’s second child, is well-versed in the WAG lifestyle, having been with Aubusson for 11 years, and married for five.
“Because for the players it’s work, and a huge moment physically and mentally,” Laura said.
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“We don’t really have any traditions, the limited spare time he has will just be spent together as a family at home or at our local parks and beach and avoiding too much talk about the game, if that’s what he prefers,” Laura told News Corp Australia.
“On the day it’s nothing to do with us, this is about the players.
“They have been working towards a goal for 12 months and they are nearly there, so my only job as a partner is to be there for him and for him to know and feel that, while hiding any nerves I might have.”
At the Grand Final, Laura said it would be “far from glamorous for me I’ll be nearly 37 weeks pregnant and wrangling a two-year-old, so the only other focus is getting her to nap well in the day and not go into labour,” she laughed.
She attended the match “with some family, and we all sit together for the game, as well as near the other partners and families of the players”.
Also at ANZ Stadium was Brittney Croker, the wife of Canberra Raiders co-captain Jarrod Croker.
Beauty therapist Brittney — who owns her own business, B’s Beauty and Lashes — was another standout at the Dally M Awards, wearing a one-shoulder sequined black Daniel Avakian dress complete with a side-train and strappy black heels.
The couple tied the knot in Byron Bay, back in October 2017 attended by 150 guests, where she walked down the aisle to Elvis’s Can’t Help Falling In Love.
They are doting doggie parents to a pomeranian cavalier named Jax and a Maltese cavalier called Indi.
Ahead of the Grand Final, she told News Corp Australia: “Mum and I are going to Sydney tomorrow … and then we’ll head over to Olympic Park on Sunday morning and meet up with some of the girls and go the game together,” Brittney, 27, said.
While the Raiders didn't have a formal, pre-match family function, Britteny said some of the WAGs and families would “probably have a drink to calm the nerves in the afternoon” ahead of the final.
After the game, Brittney said the Raiders WAGs joined the players in the rooms and then at a closed function held by the club at a Sydney hotel.
Another familiar face in the stands was Monisha Lew-Fatt, wife of Jack Wighton of the Canberra Raiders.
The mother-of-two and budding Instagram influencer (she has more than 17,000 followers), turned heads in a revealing crimson dress by Matija Vuica, teamed with a feathered Olga Berg clutch, at the Dally M Awards on Wednesday.
The dramatic sleeveless gown featured huge cut-outs under the bust and on the sides, drawing lots of attention online.
Lew-Fatt this week paid tribute to her Raiders star husband, saying they’d been “through thick and thin, I’ll always be by your side and thank you for always sticking by mine”.
“Thank you so so much to my A team for making me feel like a princess tonight! So much love for you all,” Monisha posted on her Instagram, along with a snap of her and Wighton.