‘Always going to back Tamika’: The Dally M-winning Broncos X-factor eyeing her fifth premiership

‘Sneaky meeky’: loved by fans, loathed by opponents.

Of course, we’re talking about Broncos fullback Tamika Upton. Loathed only because she can turn a game on its head, slip through even the tightest defensive lines, and single-handedly drag a team to victory.

It’s why Upton has long been considered the best player in the NRLW, a fair label for the 28-year-old who just took home her second Dally M medal in three years – the first female player to receive the award twice.

She’s already won four NRLW premierships, and was named player of the match in the 2022 and 2023 grand finals, but she’s hoping to add a fifth against the Roosters on Sunday.

The only people who love her more than die-hard Broncos fans are her teammates – what a relief to play alongside rather than opposite her.

“I’m just trying to keep up with her, she’s a little bit faster than me,” joked veteran Broncos skipper Ali Brigginshaw.

“But I don’t think people see the work that Tamika does in defence. The way she organises our defensive line and the way she can move the players around, anyone that’s played fullback will watch her in defence and see what she’s able to do.

“We’ve had consistency with the spine all year, and that probably helps Princey [coach Scott Prince] be able to come up with the game plan and what we’re able to do.”

Prince agrees that although Upton is one of the game’s best attacking players, it’s her defence that has helped get Brisbane to their first grand final since 2020.

“We’ve been building the last couple of years, having a really good structure around our attack, but ultimately defence wins the big games,” Prince said.

“Speak of attack, it’s always great when you’ve got girls that know their role within the team, knowing their job, which creates opportunity.

“Obviously, having Tamika back, those small opportunities she makes them pay. That’s the beauty when you’ve got a superstar like that in the back line, where there’s a one-on-one tackle, you’re always going to back Tamika one-on-one with the opposition. When you put her in a position to get points, nine times out of 10, she’s going to make them pay.”

The Roosters are undefeated in 2025, while the Broncos only loss of the year came to the Roosters in round three.

But Brisbane have learnt a lot since then, and in the final month have conceded an average of just four points per game. This Broncos team feels completely different to the one that conceded 30 points to the Tricolours in July.

“You cast your mind back to when we played the Roosters, they got off to a great start. That’s what they’re renowned to do, they’re renowned for blowing teams off the park early, and they pride themselves on that,” Prince said.

“They use their power and strength up through the middle, you’ve got Isabelle Kelly and Jess Sergis on an edge that help their middle out, and that’s where they try to destroy you. So, we understand what’s coming this Sunday, and I’m sure they’re going to bring their A-game, just like us.”

Strange brain: The Roosters ‘genius’ who’s produced an NRLW powerhouse

Genius – that’s how the Roosters NRLW players describe their head coach John Strange.

It’s a title ‘Strangey’ has earned after guiding the Tricolours to three NRLW grand finals since taking charge in 2021. They won in 2021 and 2024, and Strange has overseen a dominant 2025 season that’s seen the Tricolours remain undefeated as they head into Sunday’s grand final against the Broncos.

The Roosters’ dominance this season is an achievement that’s been criticised given the lopsidedness of the competition. To some degree, the criticism is fair given the Roosters have seven Origin players and five Australian representatives.

But on the other hand, a third of the team have come out of the Roosters Central Coast pathway system – a system Strange helped create and is now reaping the rewards.

Isabelle Kelly, Jocelyn Kelleher, Jayme Fressard, Jasmin Strange, Taina Naividi, Olivia Kernick and Shawden Burton are all Central Coast products, and they rave about Strange, who was awarded NRLW coach of the year at the Dally M awards on Wednesday.

“I owe my whole career to him,” said halfback Jocelyn Kelleher.

“He pulled me across from AFL, gave me the opportunity to play, gave me my first contract and has kept me here at the Roosters ever since ... He’s a legend, he’s so smart, he says things I wouldn’t even think of ... I’m learning so much still even after five years of having him as a coach. He’s a genius.”

Strange was the reason the Roosters were able to lure Keeley Davis from the Dragons in 2023.

“The way he was as a person I think is the most important,” Davis said.

“He’s got such a great footy brain. He’s got so much attention to detail, which I feel like sometimes lacks in the women’s game because we’re still catching up on a lot of the fundamentals.

“To have someone like him in the women’s game is unreal, and I feel so lucky that I get to be coached by him. But I feel like you can see in the way that so many girls have developed and the systems and pathways we have at the Roosters that so much of that is driven by him.”

Now, Strange’s influence on the Roosters talent pipeline is as present as ever, with many of his NRLW players coaching the Tricolours juniors.

Davis is the head coach of the Roosters team in the Tarsha Gale Cup, the women’s under-19s competition in NSW. Fressard coaches the Roosters 17s in the Lisa Fiaola Cup, while Kelly and Kelleher also coach teams in junior competitions and high schools.

When you see how dominant the Roosters have been the past two years, it’s a realistic prospect that the Tricolours will continue to dominate the women’s game for many years.

“There are lots of NRLW girls bouncing in and out of their [junior] training which I think is super important,” Kernick said.

“It bridges that gap, and it makes an easy transition for our young ones coming up to NRLW.”

From ‘back-up’ to big shot. How Kelleher became the Roosters’ clutch player

Until last weekend, Jocelyn Kelleher had never kicked a field goal in the NRLW.

In fact, despite many attempts on the practice pitch, the Roosters’ playmaker had hardly managed to nail one at training either.

But with a spot in the grand final on the line, Kelleher – who shifted from five-eighth to halfback two weeks ago after Tarryn Aiken suffered a season-ending ACL injury – slotted the match-winning field goal against the Sharks to send the Roosters into another decider.

“This whole season it’s usually up to Tarryn, I was kind of just the back-up, so I hadn’t been doing too much,” Kelleher said.

“We had done a lot of scenarios at training where I’d actually missed that. So, I think when I kicked that, Keeley [Davis] looked at me and said, ‘are you ready’, and I was just like, ‘yep, I guess so, give me the ball’. I just tried to take my time, and it ended up being the best kick I’ve ever done. So, not bad.”

The confidence to take ownership of game-winning situations has been years in the making for the 25-year-old.

After years of shuffling between the interchange bench and the run-on team, Kelleher has finally found her groove over the past two seasons.

But Aiken’s injury forced Kelleher to stamp her authority as the leading playmaker and take control when the Roosters needed her most.

“Tarryn’s an amazing player and it’s been really hard trying to step up and fill her shoes, and I just need to keep reminding myself that I can’t do the things she can do, and I need to focus on what I can do instead,” Kelleher said.

“That field goal gave me the confidence that I do need to back myself because when I do back myself, I can achieve it.”

Kelleher is unrecognisable as a player to the one she was three years ago; with finals on the line in 2022, she admits she didn’t have the confidence to take control of the game.

“Three years ago, when we lost to Parramatta in the semi-final, I was halfback at that time and we lost that game. I had a chat with [coach John Strange] at the end-of-year review, and it was kind of like, I needed to take those risks,” Kelleher said.

“I didn’t want to attempt 40-30s because I didn’t want to kick it out and I didn’t want to lose it for the team, and it ended up losing us the game anyway. I took a lot of learnings out of that year.”

It was that loss to the Eels that fuelled her game-winning performance last Saturday.

“I had a chat to Strangey during the week, and he said this is your chance to fix everything you didn’t do in that game ... I did my best to leave everything on that field, and we got that one point up. It was good to fix what I did three years ago and Strangey said he was proud of me for that.”

Roosters and Broncos dominate NRLW Dally M nominations

NRLW grand finalists Sydney Roosters and Brisbane Broncos have dominated the 2025 Dally M women’s nominations, with the Tricolours leading the count with 13, two clear of the Broncos.

Skipper’s Isabelle Kelly and Ali Brigginshaw were rewarded for their teams’ success this season – with the Roosters undefeated in 2025 and the Broncos’ only loss coming to the Roosters – by being nominated for captain of the year, along with Newcastle’s Yasmin Clydsdale.

Coaches John Strange and Scott Prince were similarly recognised by being nominated for coach of the year, along with Ricky Henry, who helped lead the Cowboys to their first finals series just two years after joining the competition.

Kelly has also been nominated for centre of the year – which she won in 2024, 2023 and 2022 – and for the Provan-Summons Medal, on behalf of the Roosters, which is awarded to the player deemed by Dally M judges to have displayed the ‘true spirit of the game’ through their on-field actions.

Reigning Dally M medal winner Olivia Kernick, centre Jess Sergis, playmaker Jocelyn Kelleher, halfback Tarryn Aiken (who will miss the grand final due to an ACL injury), hooker Keeley Davis, props Otesa Pule and Rima Butler, and second rower Aliyah Nasio are the other Roosters’ players nominated in their positional categories.

The only positional category a Roosters player was not nominated in was fullback, with Parramatta’s Abbi Church, North Queensland’s Jakiya Whitfeld and Brisbane’s Tamika Upton the three nominations.

The Tricolours also missed out on a nomination for rookie of the year, with Raiders fullback Elise Simpson, Dragons centre Indie Bostock and Broncos forward Shalom Sauaso the three nominees.

Bostock was the Dragons’ only nomination. The Tigers, Raiders, Sharks and Warriors each received two nominations.

Newcastle were the third-most nominated club with Jesse Southwell named in the halfback of the year category, Sheridan Gallagher for winger of the year, and Clydsdale in second row along with her captain of the year nomination.

Players were ineligible for Dally M nominations at the awards at Randwick Racecourse on Wednesday night if they are suspended for two or more matches.

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