Roosters win NRLW grand final despite courageous fightback from Cronulla

In many ways, the Roosters’ 32-28 victory against the Sharks in the NRLW grand final is poetic justice.

Now fullback Sam Bremner, who was spectacularly brought out of retirement after Corban Baxter tore her ACL, has finally claimed her first and only NRLW premiership victory.

Millie Elliott became the first women’s player to win three premierships with three different clubs. The only player to do it before her was Glenn Lazarus, who won five premierships across the 1980s and ’90s with Canberra, Brisbane and Melbourne.

And to top it all off, Dally M Medal winner Olivia Kernick scored a try double, and paved the way for the club’s first NRLW premiership since 2021.

That’s not even including the fact that skipper Isabelle Kelly miraculously returned from a dislocated elbow last week to help lead her team to victory. Or that centre Jess Sergis and halfback Tarryn Aiken also bounced back from injuries to return in time for the Roosters’ finals run.

But after two semi-final losses in 2022 and 2023, the Roosters finally have their fairytale ending, despite a courageous second-half fightback from Cronulla that had the game on a knife’s edge until the full-time siren.

The Roosters celebrate their grand final win.Credit: Getty Images

It was a Jocelyn Kelleher kicking masterclass that helped orchestrate the Roosters’ first-half dominance, with the Tricolours scoring their first three tries from three Cassie Staples errors under the high ball.

At half-time Cronulla were at risk of copping the biggest defeat in NRLW grand final history – a record set by Dragons in 2019 when they lost the final to the Broncos by 24 points.

But then came the fightback.

With 35 minutes in the match, and nothing left to lose, Cronulla skipper Tiana Penitani helped ignite one of the greatest comebacks in NRLW history with the first try after half-time, and another with one minute and six seconds left on the clock to make the difference four.

Dally M winner Olivia Kernick scores for the Roosters.Credit: Getty Images

Penitani declined to take the conversion, instead giving Cronulla one last-ditch effort to snag victory, after they came out firing with the first four tries in the second half.

But the Roosters hadn’t lost a match all year when they had held a lead of more than six points, and that didn’t change on grand final day.

Kernick’s try in the 66th minute managed to be just enough to help the Roosters limp over the line.

Roosters coach John Strange said his side had executed their gameplan perfectly – in the first half, at least.

“The first half we were brilliant, in everything … we went really well and then looking for when they cracked to take advantage of that, which the girls did in the first half, so [I was] really happy at half-time,” Strange said.

“And then, yeah, the second half we just put ourselves under pressure a little bit ... It was getting close there, they had all the momentum, the Sharks, in the second half. But [I’m] just really impressed with these girls staying calm the whole time.”

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The NRL grand final is Live and Free on Channel 9 & 9Now