Bondi will host both the 2026 NRL & NRLW Premiership celebrations this week after the Sydney Roosters men and women completed the double on Sunday afternoon.
As far as the numbers go (barring the scoreboard in the NRL Grand Final), it was a similar story across both contests. Easts completely dominated both Brisbane & Newcastle in just about every statistical measurement on Sunday courtesy of an unmatched power game through the middle and a professional, disciplined defensive display, off the ball.
With a combined net yardage difference of +1280 running metres across both Grand Finals (+654 metres in the NRL and +626 metres in the NRLW), the Roosters utterly suffocated their opposition. A total 65% possession for the girls and 58% for the men saw Easts enjoy the lion’s share of possession and field position while limiting any gift chances they offered themselves (just three penalties conceded across both Grand Finals).
The similarities across both Premiership winning rosters even extended down to individual personnel.
In the frontrow, Millie Elliott (18 runs for 189m) was a colossus through the middle third for the women, similarly to how Naufahu Whyte (17 runs for 189m) laid the platform for the men.
In the backline, Isabelle Kelly and Jess Sergis did what they always do to carry Easts tirelessly out of yardage before James Tedesco and Mark Nawaqanitawase did the same a few hours later.
And off the bench, a rotation of Rima Butler (121m for 5 tackle busts) and Amber Hall (1 try) saw the girls maintain the rage either side of halftime (three tries in this period) just as Nat Butcher and Spencer Leniu offered a point-of-difference (two tries in this period) for the men.
For the NRLW Premiers, their dominance in yardage on Sunday translated into a 30-point score and a cruisy run to the fulltime siren.
For the NRL Premiers though, we know it was a different story.
Despite all the numbers pointing towards a 13+ win result across both games, what Newcastle did in the 2026 NRL Grand Final will go down as one of the great outliers in rugby league history.
When the NRLW Roosters first rolled into good-ball, a coast-to-coast shift ended with five-eighth Jocellyn Kelleher dropping it on a dime for winger Brydie Parker to bag her first of three.
Tarryn Aiken and Jayme Fressard were next to score off the boot; Aiken chipping for herself to regather a lucky bounce before kicking skyward and finding Kelly and Jayme Fressard on the left touchline.
Brisbane were brave in defeat to make Easts work for their points but in the end – and amidst all the tweaks & rule changes in the PVL Era – rugby league will always be a game of field position and the 2026 NRLW Grand Final was no exception.
In the men’s though, the Knights defied the odds.
Defending their line for the best part of 35 minutes on Sunday, Newcastle failed to defuse nearly every single attacking kick in the first half without being punished. Not only that; one of those failed kick defusals turned into a runaway try against the run of play for Kalyn Ponga.
Before Nawaqanitawase finally enjoyed some luck to grubber-kick and regather the ball for Easts first try, the Knights were looking at going 0-and-10 on kick defusals without conceding a point…
Insanity.
Whether by luck, design or a bit of both, Newcastle somehow managed to keep their in-goal dry before then producing another clutch moment of brilliance through boom backrower Francis Manuleleua.
The front-on angle showed it best in the replay; Fletcher Sharpe shuffling across-field and picking up a charging Manuleleua who, at the time he received the ball, was running the most absurd angle I’ve ever seen from a backrower.
Timing his lead perfectly, Manuleleua looks like he’s lined up at the space between Siua Wong and Daly Cherry-Evans while Kalyn Ponga sweeps out the back. It’s a typical block shape designed to isolate Cherry-Evans and put KP into a three-on-two situation on the edge.
Instead though, Manuleleua waits just long enough for Sharpe to pull Victor Radley out of the line and open up a space on Wong’s inside shoulder.
While Newcastle couldn’t complete the fairytale on Sunday, running full speed on a near-45 degree angle to score completely untouched was a fitting way for Manuleleua to cap off a breakout 2025 campaign.
Ultimately though, most of Newcastle’s highlight reel moments came off the ball as they desperately and repeatedly turned away the best attacking team in the NRL this year.
Dom Young jamming in off his wing to cut down Billy Smith short of the line.
Kalyn Ponga flying across-screen to deny Nawaqanitawase in the far right-hand corner.
Sandon Smith folding Salesi Foketi in half just a metre shy of the tryline.
Cody Hopwood somehow getting his body underneath Lindsay Collins in the in-goal.
None of these moments will show up on the highlight reels this week but they typified Newcastle’s unlikely run into the big dance and they capture everything this young Knights team is all about.
From just about every numerical, analytical and statistical perspective, Easts should’ve followed the women’s example and won the 2026 NRL Grand Final by some margin.
If there’s one takeaway from all those numbers though, it’s just how extraordinary Newcastle’s performance on Sunday night was.
Reliable, repeatable and with a few more flashy pieces to come next year, Justin Holbrook’s Knights have very quickly become genuine NRL Premiership contenders.
For John Strange and the NRLW Roosters, they’ve completed an historic undefeated 2026 campaign to farewell two GOAT’s of the women’s game – Corban Baxter & Millie Elliott – while remaining Premiership favourites for the 2027 NRLW season.