The Roosters lost the 2025 grand final without her. This time, Tarryn Aiken won’t let title slip

Tarryn Aiken doesn’t lose her cool often. So when she does, you listen.

“If she’s spraying you, you know we’re all doing something wrong,” says teammate Olivia Kernick.

There hasn’t been much with the Roosters this season, which means Aiken’s sprays have been few and far between. But they’ve certainly been memorable.

“It happened in the Raiders game,” Kernick begins.

Not the Raiders game just gone, where the Roosters won 20-10 in last weekend’s preliminary final to progress to their third grand final in three years. Kernick is referring to the round-three clash the Roosters described as a “loss in our eyes”, even though they won, and have remained undefeated all season.

“It was pretty funny,” concedes Kernick. “It was pretty early on. We don’t really hear from her, she’s very calm, cool and collected on field.”

It’s difficult to find fault with an unbeaten season, but if you want to nitpick then that’s the match to look at. The Roosters have trailed for a combined 70 minutes and two seconds all season, but nearly half of that was during the round-three match in Canberra.

It prompted the Tricolours to wipe the whiteboard clean and start their season all over again.

“I think we probably learnt a lot about ourselves in that game, and what works for us as a team,” Aiken says.

“We had gone away and experimented with a few things before that game. But after that game, we went back to the drawing board and worked. Spoke about what strengths are good for our team and as individual players and went back to our strengths as a team.”

And what are those strengths?

“Can’t tell you that,” Aiken says with a smirk.

Ask others, however, and they’ll tell you the Roosters are strongest when Aiken is calling the shots.

“She’s the best half in the game,” says captain Isabelle Kelly. “She gets a lot of recognition, but the way that she can read the game, attacking-wise, and create situations for the people outside of her, is really incredible.”

Aiken was a notable absence in last year’s grand final, having suffered an ACL injury in the last round of the regular season which ruled her out of the finals. The Roosters lost the decider to Brisbane in the final five minutes of the match.

Jocelyn Kelleher and Corban Baxter had been admirable when filling in at No.7. But Aiken had been the team’s X-factor, and her loss cost them dearly.

“To lose your halfback two weeks out from a grand final, it’s obviously insanely hard considering we had her all year,” Kelleher says.

“I was lucky enough to be trusted with that spot. However, we are a lot stronger when she’s back. She gets through holes that don’t even exist, and she’s a genius out on that field.”

That ability to step up when the game is on the line was on full display last weekend, when Aiken slipped through a crack in the Raiders defence to score the clinching try.

For Aiken, who had helped orchestrate the Broncos’ premierships in 2019 and 2020 and then for the Roosters in 2024, missing last year’s finals was the hardest moment of her career.

“It was a tough week for me, personally, missing out on finals and the grand final,” says Aiken.

“Career-wise, that was definitely the hardest part, missing the finals last year and then obviously the lengthy rehab.”

She’s a nervous spectator, which made it difficult to sit on the sideline and watch, powerless, as the premiership slipped away.

As the game descended into a chaotic finale – Roosters trio Keeley Nizza, Rima Butler and Kelly all went down injured – Aiken’s cool head could have been the difference between heartbreak and triumph.

With the Roosters heading to the grand final on Sunday, where they will meet again meet the Broncos – the only team to have beaten them in the past two years – Aiken has her chance to re-write the script and lead her team to victory.

“She can see what we need, and is just direct, and we’ll get it done straight away and make sure everybody follows,” Nizza says.

“You probably don’t see this on the field, but she definitely can give a spray when needed to, but because she doesn’t do it too often either, everybody listens when she does.

“I think she’s such a good barometer for our team. If we need a calm voice, she’ll be it. If we need somebody telling us what to do firmly, she’ll do that as well.”

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