Ice queen Kelleher out to seal unbeaten Roosters year
George Clarke |
Jocelyn Kelleher is relishing the chance to prove her credentials as the Sydney Roosters’ cool hand once more as the Tricolours look to claim back-to-back NRLW premierships for the first time in their history.
Halfback Kelleher hit the winning field goal three minutes from fulltime at Polytec Stadium in Gosford on Saturday to claim a 17-16 win over Cronulla and send the Roosters through to next Sunday’s grand final.
The Roosters will meet the winners of Sunday’s other preliminary final between Brisbane and Newcastle.
And Kelleher, who is deputising in the No.7 jersey following Tarryn Aiken’s season-ending knee injury, is keen to stand tall when it matters most.
The 25-year-old, who usually plays as a five-eighth, nailed a pinpoint 40/30 along with her match-winning field goal and her grubber kicks in behind caused issues all night for the Sharks’ scrambling defence.
“That was the best kick of my entire life, I’ve never hit it so straight before,” Kelleher said.
“It was good to put some scenario stuff in place in case it does get down to the wire next week.
“We do a lot of that at training and it came through out there.
Praising coach John Strange, she added: “He has prepared us well for those situations and it’s good to see we can compete in high pressure situations. Hopefully, we’ll bring that into next week.”
The win extended the Roosters’ perfect record in 2025, with Strange’s side unbeaten through 11 regular season games and Saturday’s preliminary final victory over the Sharks.
Since the inception of the NRLW in 2018, only Brisbane in the competition’s maiden season and 2020 have gone through the season undefeated, claimed the minor premiership and won the grand final.
Should they win next week’s grand final, the Roosters would be the first side to complete the sweep since the competition expanded beyond four teams in 2021 to the current slate of 12 teams.
“That would be incredible. We put a lot of pressure on us to get better than last year,” Kelleher said.
“We won last year, but that wasn’t going to be good enough this year, we knew that.
“We’ve been working on what we can do to get better and trying to do that each week.”
AAP
