Lock Olivia Kernick says the team’s success comes down to a near-telepathic understanding built over the season.
“I feel like we just have this connection on the field where ... I don’t even know how to explain it,” Kernick said. “I guess it’s just a feeling, almost like a sixth sense, where you can all almost predict what each other are going to do on the field. Everyone knows each other’s tells or what’s going to happen next before that player might even do something.”
The Roosters’ only real test came in round three, when they trailed the Raiders for 32 minutes and 56 seconds before winning 22-18. Hooker Keeley Nizza said that match forced the side to reconsider how it adapts when plans go wrong.
“We probably went into the game, playing the same way as the week before, and it took us too long to change it up and adapt,” Nizza said. Kernick called it “a loss in our eyes,” adding the team was not at the standard it had been training at, defensively or in attack.
The scare proved a turning point, sending the Roosters back to the drawing board and sharpening their edge heading into the decider.