In 840 minutes of football this season, the Roosters NRLW team have trailed for only 70 of them.
That’s 770 minutes of (mostly) finely tuned footy – the kind of that’s intuitive, where everyone knows what they’re doing and where they’re going. It has led to an undefeated season for the Tricolours heading into Sunday’s grand final against Brisbane.
“I feel like we just have this connection on the field where … I don’t even know how to explain it,” says lock Olivia Kernick.
“I guess it’s just a feeling, almost like a sixth sense, where you can all almost predict what each other are going to do on the field. Everyone knows each other’s tells or what’s going to happen next before that player might even do something.”
That’s the feeling created when everything is humming. But it’s those remaining 70 minutes that get under their skin. Specifically, the 32 minutes and 56 seconds they trailed against the Raiders in round three, even though they went on to win the match 22-18.
“That was sort of a loss in our eyes,” Kernick says of that match.
“We didn’t play anywhere near our potential … we just weren’t at the standard that we had been training at – defensively or in our attack.”
That match proved a turning point. It forced the Roosters to go back to the drawing board.
It also forced them to question how they change their plans in the heat of the moment when things aren’t going to plan, says hooker Keeley Nizza.
“We probably went into the game, playing the same way as the week before, and it took us too long to change it up and adapt,” Nizza said.
“The Raiders really played the opposite game to what we thought we were going to. [With] Our game plan, we didn’t change quick enough on the run, and we didn’t adapt as players on the field. We did, eventually, but it probably took us longer than we would have liked.”
The changes put in place after the Raiders match have been the key to an unprecedented season of success. But the Roosters have been undefeated before – they were in the same position in 2025. Then they lost the grand final to the Broncos.
The Roosters’ attack has gone to a new level in 2026. On average, they’re scoring 37.8 points a game – the most of any NRLW team – and they have a points differential of +328, which is the best in NRLW history.
What exactly did they change? What are their strengths? “Can’t tell you that,” says halfback Tarryn Aiken, but her halves partner Jocelyn Kelleher provides a bit more of an insight.
“We all speak about [how] that Canberra game was the loss that we needed to have [even though they still won], and we needed to go back and look at ourselves and how we could be better,” Kelleher says.
“We did change our attack a little bit and worked a few things out – without giving away too much – we just changed pretty much how Taz [Aiken] and I operated, and I think it works really well now.”
It was a combination they were missing in last year’s grand final after Aiken did her ACL the week before finals.
When they’re working, it’s all working, says captain Isabelle Kelly.
“We obviously have a lot of great experience in this team with big players and people that have played all sorts of footy at all different levels, but when it comes to us being on, it’s listening to key players,” Kelly says.
“So, it’s listening to your halves, it’s listening to your fullback, and I think that for us is when we’re switched on 100 per cent, and we’re really dominating. That’s probably the key thing.
“You’ve got the presence of our halves, you’ve got Jos [Kelleher] – they’re very calm, both of them, so it’s a great thing to have. Taz [Aiken], the way she reads games, I’ve said it a million times, and then Jos, just with her kicking game, she can change the momentum of something so quickly.”
Billie Eder is a sports reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.From our partners
About the Author
