Isabelle Kelly's bravery typifies Roosters spirit

Sydney Roosters centre Isabelle Kelly's refusal to come off the field after suffering a suspected MCL injury in Sunday's grand final typified the passion on show during the inaugural Holden Women's Premiership. 

Brisbane's 34-12 win left the Roosters devastated in their dressing room and captain Simiana Taufa struggling to find words to describe the disappointment in the post-match media conference.

Coach Adam Hartigan lamented the fact the Roosters were left with little strike power after Kelly suffered the knee injury and winger Taleena Simon went off in the 30th minute with an ankle injury.

"Losing Taleena and Izzy, which is where a fair few of our points came last week, that obviously hurt," Hartigan said.

"There was a stage there where the physio was suggesting that we needed to look at making a change for Isabelle but she refused to come off."

The Roosters held the Broncos to one try in the second half but Hartigan said it was the one-sided affair in the first half that cost them.

"There was effort there but it definitely wasn't good enough," Hartigan said.

"I think they came with the plan to try and bully us through the middle and they got some joy there in the first half.

"We came out after halftime and we definitely fought in the second half but it was well and truly gone then.

"It will hurt for a while but it will spur us on to make sure that we're ready next year."

The Roosters posted first points in the fourth minute but leaked the next 28 points as Brisbane produced a first-half avalanche.

"We obviously knew that a lot was going to come off Ali [Brigginshaw] and Britt [Breayley] at 9, we needed to match them in the forwards which we tried to do," Hartigan said.

"There was a point there in the first half where we only got tackled four times inside their 20 and we decided to go for the penalty goal and then we didn't get back there.

"The decision to go for the penalty goal, that was mine, just to try and put some pressure on the Broncos - make them feel like they were in a situation they haven't been in before.

"And then we came up with an error off the kick-off, [resulting in a Broncos] try, then we came up with another error, [resulting in another] try. And then the one that went to video ref with Taleena and her ankle. I think that broke us a little bit."