For the third year in a row, the Brisbane Broncos have won the NRLW premiership, beating the Sydney Roosters on Sunday, 20-10.
The Brisbane Broncos’s win marks another feat for the team after its skipper Ali Brigginshaw won the Dally M female player of the year — the highest individual accolade in the NRLW game. Before the match, Brigginshaw was moved from the halves to lock and threw a pass to second row Tallisha Harden to snag the game in the 45th minute.
Despite heavy rain at ANZ Stadium in Sydney, both teams competed valiantly. The Roosters retained ball possession for more than fifty percent of the game, but Brisbane boasted cleaner passes, scoring four tries to two.
Brisbane capitalised on an early handling error from its opponents, seeing halfback Tarryn Aiken cut through the Roosters’ right edge defence, sweeping through a tackle before passing back inside, where full-back Tamika Upton scored under the posts.
Only moments later, Aiken provided another pass to second rower Amber Hall, who overlooked Shenae Ciesiolka on her outside to storm through the Roosters’ defensive line for a second try. Before the first ten minutes, Brisbane was already leading 12-0.
Yasmin Meakes scored the first try for the Roosters, diving inside a corner through a momentary gap in Brisbane’s defence. Heading into the half-time break, the Roosters scored again when Sarah Togatuki barrelled into Brisbane’s defence to set up halfback Quincy Dodd for a simple pick and drive from dummy half, which was successfully converted by Zahara Temara.
Perhaps the Rooster’s quick comeback gave Brisbane a fright — in the second half, Chelsea Lenarduzzi quickly scored from clean shotgun passes by Amber Hall and Tarryn Aiken.
Amber Hall was awarded the Karyn Murphy medal as player of the match with her impressive run total of 147 metres from 16 carries and scoring the Broncos’ second try.
Since the beginning of the NRLW competition three years ago, Brisbane have only lost one game in total and won all three premierships. They beat the Roosters in the league’s first season two year’s ago and defeated St George-Illawarra Dragons in the 2019 grand final.
Broncos NRLW Head Coach Kelvin Wright chatted to the media after the win, crediting the Roosters as a “tough team” and saying his own team ‘“really wanted to start off fast.”
“We did that in both halves and that was great,” Wright said. “The completion rates in those conditions was great, and overall it was well done by the team.”