Four key talking points of the NRLW grand final as the Titans fall short at the line

The Titans have fallen agonisingly close to bringing home the club’s first ever premiership.

The Titans have fallen agonisingly close to bringing home the clubs first ever premiership.

Trailing at half time, the Titans scored the first two tries in the second half thanks to superstar Jaime Chapman, who became the second person to score a hat trick in a NRLW grand final. But it wasn’t to be for the Titans who went down 18-24 to the Newcastle Knights.

Below are four key moments that changed the match.

Key moment #1: Three tries in 10 minutes open it up for Newcastle

The Titans started brilliantly, scoring the game’s first try in the 14th minute mark and converting, only to kick another goal eight minutes later to give themselves an 8-0 lead.

Jaime Chapman of the Titans is tackled by Shanice Parker of the Knights during the women's 2023 NRL Grand Final between the Newcastle Knights and Gold Coast Titans at Accor Stadium in Sydney on October 1, 2023. (Photo by Izhar KHAN / AFP)

Gold Coast’s defence has been the talk of the match early with only letting four tries through in the past four weeks and it started no differently early in the grand final.

The strong defence on display for the first 24 minutes before Newcastle broke through the Titans wall scoring their first try through Jasmin Strange.

The Knights weren’t done with then, now splitting the Titans defence wide open scoring two more tries in the space of three minutes to jump to a 12-8 lead at half time.

It very easily could have been a lot worse if the Knights could kick straight, missing all three conversions.

Newcastle gathered more and more momentum after the first try, with a defensive break down of the Titans pair Lauren Brown and Destiny Mino-Sinapati assisting with tries two and three for the Knights.

And it very well could have been worse with Dally M winner Tamika Upton almost through with 40 seconds remaining of the first half.

Key moment #2: Jaime Chapman is a big time player

Every grand final looks for someone to stand up on either side, for the Titans, it was Jaime Chapman.

Gold Coast’s centre scored the opening try of the game through a great dummy pass by Lauren Brown, giving the Titans all the momentum early.

Chapman went two better in the second half, scoring the halves first try and followed up with the second, her third, to give the Titans back the lead.

Jaime Chapman of the Titans scores a try during the women's 2023 NRL Grand Final between the Newcastle Knights and Gold Coast Titans at Accor Stadium in Sydney on October 1, 2023. (Photo by Izhar KHAN / AFP)

She became the second player to score a hat trick in a grand final.

But it wasn’t just her skill on offence that made her a big time player, but her defence smarts and tackles showed why she was a class above the rest on grand final day.

The Knights looked almost certain to score a try with about 19 minutes to go in the match but Chapman was skilful enough to turn the Knights’ Shanice Parker onto her back as she dived over the try line.

The roll stopped Parker claiming her second try of the match and held onto the Titans six point lead.

Key moment #3: Cometh the moment, cometh the medallist

Newcastle’s fullback Tamika Upton stood up when it mattered the most for the Knights as she scored the final two tries of the match to come from behind to claim victory.

It looked almost likely the Titans were going to win their first premiership but Upton had other ideas scoring two tries in five minutes.

Tamika Upton scores the match winner during the NRLW Grand Final between the Newcastle Knights and the Gold Coast Titans at Accor Stadium, Sydney Olympic Park. Pics Adam Head

The 2023 Dally M Medallist stood up picking the Titans defence apart with a dummy pass, with the Knights converting, levelling the score with eight minutes to go in the match.

Fast forward five and half minutes and Upton came up big again giving the Knights the lead.

Upton was named the Karyn Murphy medallist for best on ground in the grand final for the second year in a row, which tops off an incredible two years.

The fullback helped the Knights claim back-to-back premierships.

Key moment #4: Youngster mistakes late prove costly.

Rookie of the Year Chantay Kiria-Ratu remember certain moments late in the grand final loss to the Knights.

The five-eighth dropped a pass to her as she looked to kick the ball on the final tackle, causing a turnover Knights goal side of mid field which resulted in Upton scoring her second and the game winning try.

Less than 90 seconds later, the teenager looked to pass the ball off when right on the try line with the chance to level the scoring but miscommunication between players caused a knock-on, ending the chance of the Titans to draw level and take the game to over time.