When Olivia Kernick runs out at GIO Stadium this Saturday against the Canberra Raiders, she'll bring up her 50th NRLW game. Up in the coaches' box watching her do it will be John Strange, marking the exact same milestone as her coach. It's a neat piece of symmetry, but it's not a coincidence of timing so much as a reflection of a bond that stretches back to before either of them wore Roosters colours in the top flight.
Strange's first game as Sydney Roosters NRLW head coach and Kernick's NRLW debut for the club happened on the very same afternoon, Round 1 of the delayed 2021 season, played in 2022. Since that day, neither has missed a match. Every one of Kernick's 50 games has been played under Strange, and every one of Strange's 50 games in charge has had Kernick in his line-up. It is, in the women's game, about as rare a shared record as exists.
Teammate Jocelyn Kelleher, who has known Strange for all of her own career, sums up what he's meant to the players who've come through under him: “He's given me my whole career. Honestly, he's picked me up from the start playing from other sports, and he's brought me, nurtured me all the way here. He's literally like one of the big reasons I play footy. He's a legend. He's the nicest bloke. I can't say enough nice things about him.”
The connection runs deeper than a shared debut date. Both come from the Central Coast, a production line that has become central to the Roosters' NRLW identity. Kernick played her junior football through the Roosters' Central Coast junior sides, while Strange coached the Central Coast Roosters in the NSW Women's Premiership before stepping up to the NRLW head job. Kernick is one of seven Central Coast products in the current Roosters squad, and by her own account, Strange was actually her first rugby league coach, at Berkeley Vale Panthers, when she was just 16.
In the years since that shared debut, Strange and Kernick have won two premierships together, in 2021 and 2024. Along the way, both have collected individual honours that put them among the most decorated figures in the competition's short history.
Kernick has won the Dally M Second Rower of the Year three years running from 2022 to 2024, added the overall Dally M Medal in 2024, and picked up the NRLW Lock of the Year award in 2025. At club level she's taken out the Roosters' NRLW Kari Player of the Year and Community Impact Award in 2025, and was named the Club's Rookie of the Year back in 2021. In representative football, she's been a fixture of the Sky Blues forward pack every year from 2022 through 2026, was named NSW Women's Origin Player of the Year in 2024, and won the Nellie Doherty Medal as the 2025 Origin series' best player. Her dual heritage has also seen her selected for both the Indigenous All Stars and the Māori All Stars. Since 2022, Kernick has also been a mainstay of the Jillaroos' Pacific Championship squads, representing Australia at international level.
Strange's own trophy cabinet has filled up in parallel. He took over as Roosters NRLW head coach ahead of the 2021 season, guiding the club to the premiership in his very first year in charge, and has since won the Dally M NRLW Coach of the Year twice, in 2022 and 2025. In 2025 and 2026 he also coached the Sky Blues to a State of Origin series win. Across his tenure, he's built a winning percentage of 80% that sits at the top of the competition.
Fellow forward Keeley Nizza speaks for plenty of teammates when she reflects on Kernick's rise: “She's unreal, like I love playing with Kernick so much. I think it's actually crazy that she's hit 50 games. It feels like she's actually been around from the very start, but she's a competitor, and I'm really, really lucky to run out alongside her.”
Saturday at GIO Stadium isn't just another round for the Roosters; it's a shared landmark for two of the women's game's most important figures.
