Home-grown Roosters stars make no apologies for NRLW domination

As she prepares to take over the Sydney Roosters halfback role, a "nervous" Jocelyn Kelleher has recounted how she was starstruck while refereeing Isabelle Kelly as a junior on the Central Coast.

After remaining undefeated in the regular season, the Roosters are now in sudden-death mode for the finals and have lost 2024 Golden Boot winner Tarryn Aiken with an ACL injury but are backing Kelleher to guide them back-to-back premierships.

Kelleher, who will play her 50th NRLW matches for the Roosters in Saturday night’s preliminary final against the Sharks at Gosford’s Polytec Stadium, is one of seven Central Coast products in the squad.

Much has been made about the dominance of the Roosters, with critics pointing to their high Origin representation.

However, Kelly, Kelleher, Olivia Kernick, Jayme Fressard, Jasmin Strange, Taina Naividi, Eliza Lopamaua and Aliyah Nasio grew up on the Central Coast or are products of the club’s pathways.

Roosters and NSW coach John Strange is also from the Central Coast and has coached some of the players - including Kernick, the 2024 Dally M Medallist - since they were juniors.

“The Roosters is my home, it has been since 2020,” Kelleher said. “I love the staff, I love the club and the players – some of them I have played with the whole time.

“Obviously, the feeder is the Central Coast, as well, so I played Harvey Norman (NSW Women’s Premiership) for Central Coast Roosters and then filtered into here. I love the Roosters.

“There's like seven or eight of us that are from the Central Coast. It’s our home club, it’s the closest to us, it is where we're going to go.

“We don't come here to win, it's our own club. Strangey has built us into these players, and we've just become a good team together.”

The NSW Origin utility, who is on the verge of Jillaroos selection for next month’s Pacific Championships, has known Kernick since they were eight years old and also played AFL with Strange from a young age.

“I’ve known them forever. We had our awkward teenage years together,” Kelleher said.

“When you think about Izzy, I used to look up to her before I met her and I remember I refereed her at touch once and I was like, ‘oh my God, that's Isabelle Kelly’. Now she's one of my best mates.”

Asked about filling the boots of Aiken for the finals, Kelleher said: "It’s a lot of pressure. I'm very nervous but I know that Strangey has our backs and we play for each other out there".

Kernick said the players were pleased that the Roosters and the NRL had decided to play the semi-final on the Central Coast as it would enable many of their friends and family to attend.

“On the Central Coast, everyone knows everyone, and me and Jossy used to come down and play touch in our mums’ team. The mums would bring their daughters and we'd all play on Monday night together,” Kernick said.

“I played juniors with Jas and Strangey was actually my first rugby league coach with Berkely Vale Panthers. We played in the 9-a-side tournament when we were 16, so I’ve known Jazzy since I was 14 or 15 and likewise with the rest of the Central Coast girls, I've known them for years.

“We've all come through the Roosters system and we've stayed here because it's home for us. That's obviously not the case with other teams.”

Despite their domination of the NRLW this season, the loss of Aiken is a significant blow for the Roosters and Strange has reinforced to his players that their efforts will count for little if they aren't focused against the Sharks.

“We haven't spoken too much about the undefeated thing, it does not matter now, It's a completely different competition, it's sudden death, it's a clean slate and it's finals footy, so we are really looking forward to that challenge," hooker Keeley Davis said. 

Besides moving Kelleher to halfback, Naividi has switched from the wing to secondrow in place of the suspended Nasio and Davis said the Roosters trained in different positions to prepare for any scenario. 

“At some point or another Joss has played every single position, including front row, which is a credit to how versatile she is and how hard she's worked because you can't just go into those positions if you don't know the role," Davis said.

"It's been 50 games now and I think she's definitely underrated in the competition.

"I think the way that she can understand the game of footy is really great, but she's very selfless to be able to slot into so many different positions without hesitation, and it takes a lot to learn that at training as well."