BY ROB
The NRLW Raiders season came to an end on Saturday night, the preliminary matchup between them and the competition favourites proving just a smidge too hard to overcome.
We always knew that the Roosters would come out gunning, and they didn’t hold back, battering the Green Machine at every possible moment. Other teams would have wilted under this assault, but Canberra were determined to show that while they might not have been on the same level of physicality that they can survive several bruising sets while they wait for the tide to turn.
The Roosters opened the scoring, first on their left edge through Fressard, and then straight up the middle by using Rima Butler as a battering ram.
The Raiders hung on for dear life during this period, but they were doing so much defending that the attack was suffering when they glimpsed a chance.
The Roosters were brutal in defence, piling multiple bodies into tackles and constantly driving Canberra ball-carriers back. The Milk had to grind for every metre, and it often took them two tackles just to make it to the next 10 metre line (we could write a whole other article about Badger’s mind-numbing refereeing).
The question remains “What could have been?” had the Raiders been able to hold onto the Steeden in the Roosters territory in the first half – so often attacking sets just suddenly fizzled out as the ball came loose.
With the halftime break looming Canberra finally found their moment, their possession extended after a Roosters infringement on the edge of the red zone. Zahara Temara drifted right and found Blackwell (now sporting jersey #25 after her starting #6 strip was designated biowaste due to the amount of nose blood smeared across it), who caught tri-colour defenders napping, scything through them and over to make the scoreline 10-4.
Halftime and a glimmer of hope.
The second half was equally brutal, with the ameliorating factor being that Badger finally started to take exception to the Roosters shenanigans in the ruck.
The Roosters scored again through Jess Sergis, the ball bouncing perfectly for her after Waterman flubbed a defusal (it’s okay Izzy, you’re still my Raider of the year). Canberra reeled them back in from a clever short-pass-crash-ball from Chante and Dodd (Hollie of Mass Destruction is her newly approved acronym).
With 3 minutes left and the scores at 16-10 the Roosters landed the killing blow, Aiken cutting between two tired defenders to ice the game.
And so ended the Raiders 2026 campaign. While the game itself didn’t have the result we wanted we can take solace, and indeed pride, from the effort this squad of women have put in this year. It’s their best ever result, their first ever finals appearance, their first ever finals win, the closest they’ve ever been to a grand final. They ended up one the four best teams (finals included).
The 2027 NRLW season is a long way off, but for now we can sit and reflect on their best season ever.
We 💚 the NRLW Raiders!
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