The Sydney Roosters have closed out the 2026 NRLW regular season the only way they know how, unbeaten. An 11-round campaign yielded 11 wins, a second consecutive Nellie Doherty Shield, and a third minor premiership under coach John Strange, cementing the club's status as the benchmark for the competition.
The victory over Canterbury-Bankstown in Round 11 was the Roosters' 26th consecutive regular season win, a streak that now stretches beyond two years. It also extended their remarkable record across the last 30 matches to 29 wins, with the club's only blemish in that period the Grand Final loss to Brisbane in 2025.
The numbers behind this year's campaign are hard to believe. The Roosters scored 434 points at an average of 39.45 per game, a new NRLW record, while conceding just 116 points across 11 matches, an average of 10.55 per game, equalling the record for miserliness over a regular season. The result is a points differential of plus 318, also a competition record. Along the way the team ran in 82 tries and kicked 53 goals, both new NRLW season records, underlining an attacking game that has been as ruthless as the defence has been suffocating.
No performance captured that dominance better than Round 8's 66-8 win over the Warriors, a match that rewrote the NRLW record book. Most points in a match, biggest winning margin, most tries and most goals kicked, with Jocelyn Kelleher's nine-goal haul the standout individual mark (a margin later matched by the Titans in Round 10). Two rounds later, the Roosters set another record, racing to a 56-6 half-time lead over the Cowboys, the biggest first-half margin the competition has seen.
Individually, the season belonged to Jessica Sergis and Jocelyn Kelleher. Sergis finished the regular season atop the competition's try-scoring charts with 16, a new club record for a single campaign, and did so with finals football still to come. Kelleher, meanwhile, set new Roosters season benchmarks with 47 goals and 98 points, continuing a year in which she became, in Round 5, the first NRLW player to reach 300 career points.
The season was also defined by milestones. Strange became the first coach in NRLW history to reach 50 games in charge of a club, doing so in Round 3 – the same round in which Olivia Kernick became the 4th Roosters player to reach 50 NRLW appearances. In Round 4 Jessica Sergis reached her 50th game milestone, finishing the season outright record holder for most tries for the Roosters. Round 5 saw Taryn Aiken hit 50 in a season that also saw her 17 try assists. Keeley Nizza became the outright record holder for NRLW appearances in Round 6 with her 62nd match. While Round 9 brought, Brydie Parker, the only woman to have played in all five of the club's grand finals also reached 50 games. Round 10 delivered the club's 50th win in only its 68th match, and saw Otesa Pule become the youngest player in NRLW history to reach 50 games.
Head coach John Strange says the minor premiership is a reward for a level of consistency few sides have matched.
"Look, I think it's a really good reward for being the best team over all the rounds," Strange said. "Obviously you want to win the premiership at the end of the day, everyone does. But I don't think you can skim over the fact that it's a reward for being the most consistent side throughout the whole season, and that's something I'm proud of with these girls and what they've been able to do."
That perfect record now earns the Roosters a week off, a reward for 11 rounds of near-flawless football and the chance to prepare fully fit and fresh for a preliminary final.
