Sport
11 August, 2025
Roosters claim premiership
SPEED, fitness and determination have earned the Atherton Roosters Women’s side the 2025 Grand Final trophy after they soundly defeated Yarrabah 48-24 on Saturday.
The Roosters side started slowly and couldn’t get their hands on the ball for the first five minutes, with Yarrabah using their strength to cross the try line. A conversion took the score to 6-0.
But they soon made an error, dropping the ball in their goal area, allowing second rower Layla Geck to pounce upon it for the Roosters first points, although they failed to capitalise on the try, missing the conversion.
Yarrabah hit back just a few minutes later, barrelling their way through the Roosters defence to cross the try line, taking the score to 10-4 after they again failed to convert.
It wasn’t long though until the Roosters struck back, after Yarrabah failed to secure the ball from the kick off, allowing it to go into touch, putting Atherton just 20m from their line. The team took advantage of the error, easily cutting through for their third try which they converted, taking the scoreline to 18-14.
Just two minutes later, Atherton scored another try, but failed to convert, levelling the scoreline at 18-18 at half time.
In the second half, the Roosters truly showed their dominance, starting with lock Bri Cater crossing the line under the goal posts which enabled Nicola Bradford to convert, putting Atherton in the lead for the first time in the match.
Yarrabah wasn’t finished though, with Uleta Miller scoring a try at the 13th minute mark under the goal posts which allowed for the conversion – one of only two for the match – levelling the scores again (24-24).
But after that, it was all Roosters who capitalised off Yarrabah’s errors and the fast pace of the game, crossing the try line another four times before the final siren.
Two of the best tries came from Kimberly Bryant who benefited from an error by the Seahawks, picked up the ball and ran two-thirds of the field down the sideline to easily score, and five-eighth Bradford who secured the ball from the kick off and ran almost the entire length of the field down the sideline to cross for a try.
Try scorers for the Roosters were Layla Geck (2), Aerielle Hobbler (2), Bri Cater (2), May Oppermann (1), Kimberley Bryant (1), and Lexeen Mathieson (1).
The Roosters showed their class in a match that was worthy of a grand final and were already celebrating as they left the field as the 2025 FNQ Rugby League Women’s division champions.
