Bremner fires Roosters through to decider

A scintillating performance from evergreen fullback Sam Bremner helped the Roosters to a 25-16 victory over the Knights on Sunday evening, which puts them through to face the Sharks in the 2024 NRLW Grand Final. 

Not even on a roster a week out from the season starting back in July, having stepped away from the game at the conclusion of the 2022 season, Bremner answered an eleventh-hour call from the Roosters to return to action and is now one win away from claiming her first title at NRL Telstra Women's Premiership level. 

The 32-year-old scored a first-half brace, with the first coming via a pinpoint line run against a sliding defence, before she blitzed the chasers from 20 metres out to dot down right on half-time and give her side an 18-point lead at the break, from which they never looked back. 

Having been beaten semi-finalists in each of the past two seasons, the result marks the Roosters' first grand final appearance since 2021 when they beat the Dragons.

While the final scoreline gave the appearance of a close contest, it was always in the control of the Roosters, who leaked a couple of late tries when the result was already all but confirmed. 

Another huge contributor was playmaker Tarryn Aiken, who took just eight minutes to make her presence felt in her first game since being injured in Round 7, with a floating cut-out pass putting Brydie Parker over.

By full-time she had a pair of try assists, three line break assists and 143 run metres to her name. 

Newcastle's only joy in the first half came after Georgia Roche spun through some flimsy defence to go over, but with Jesse Southwell missing the straightforward conversion attempt that followed they squandered the chance to hit the front. 

Keeley Davis then used the distraction of powerhouse forward Amber Hall to crash over from close range, with her dummy to the former Kiwi Fern giving her enough room to crash over for a try which Jocelyn Kelleher converted. 

The Roosters were lucky to survive the next set after knocking on from the kick-off, but their modest lead soon became a commanding one. 

Bremner first popped up on Kelleher's inside shoulder to slide through, before executing a similar move with Aiken to expose another gap and sprint through from 20 out. 

Back-to-back penalties against the Knights to start the second half gifted Kelleher with an easy two points to stretch the lead even further, and while it ended up being their last points of the game bar a late field goal from Aiken, their defence well and truly had the measure of Newcastle. 

A first NRLW try for Evah McEwen and a strike on the siren from Olivia Higgins proved little consolation on a day in which the Knights were well beaten. 

Roosters coach John Strange now looks set to have his almost his full complement of talent available for the decider, despite Isabelle Kelly being given an earlier breather as she played through an elbow injury, with Aiken and Jess Sergis appearing to get through unscathed.

Match Snapshot The Roosters head into Sunday's grand final on a five-game winning streak, during which time they have averaged 31 points scored.  The result was the Tricolours' first win over the Knights since Round 4 of 2022.  Sam Bremner had a huge day out, scoring a first-half double to go along with four line breaks, six tackle breaks and 13 runs for 108 metres.  Newcastle skipper Hannah Southwell suffered a knee injury 20 minutes into the game but was able to return for the final 28 minutes of the game.  Knights fullback Tamika Upton appeared to struggle through a knee injury for the final 15 minutes.  Tricolours skipper Isabelle Kelly was removed from the contest with 15 to go in what appeared to be a precautionary measure.  The Roosters are now six from seven in games at Allianz Stadium. Play of the Game

It was just one example of Sam Bremner's attacking intelligence making an impact on the game, and it kickstarted a massive three-minute period for the fullback. Sensing the Newcastle line was sliding across aggressively, Bremner appeared to change her line to go against the grain and ended up racing through a gaping hole for the first of her two tries on the day. 

What They Said

"We just weren't quite there today. You could tell watching, they weren't as clinical as they've been the last two weeks. It's hard to take a loss when you weren't at your best - you can handle when you were at your best and they were just too good on the day - but that's not taking anything away from the Roosters." – Knights coach Ben Jeffries. 

"Two prelims in a row we lost, I don't think there's been a day gone by from the last semi that I haven't thought about that and thought about making sure as a coach that that doesn't happen again. As a coach you don't want to see pain on your players' faces... I didn't want to see that again." – Roosters coach John Strange.