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The Sydney Roosters and Brisbane Broncos prep for the NRL Women's Grand Final while coach John Strange proposes a new finals format that gives a double chance to top teams, arguing the current single‑match system may not reward a season of dominance.
The NRL Women's competition has settled into a pattern that has seen the Sydney Roosters and the Brisbane Broncos repeat as the final two teams amid a season that has been called both "broken" and "breathtaking" by fans and pundits alike.
NRLW Finals Format Faces Growing Scrutiny
This year the Roosters have repeated a perfect record in the 2026 regular season-an achievement that caught the eye of coach John Strange, who is now contemplating a thorough overhaul of the finals format. Strange, whose Roosters last season crept into the finals with a tough series of wins and knocked out a dominant Beijing side during a knockout game, finds himself in a position he has never been before: he is coaching an undefeated team and faces the possibility that the Glorious final could again hinge on a single match.
The coach has acknowledged that, because the current structure affords the top two teams only a single week off before a sudden‑death preliminary, the reward may not be enough to compensate for a short season where any mistake can cost a premiership. In response, Strange has proposed a "four‑team, three‑week" system in which the first‑place club faces the second‑placed team in Week One and the winners of that fixture go straight into the Grand Final.
The loser meets the winner of the 3 vs 4 clash, allowing the top teams a "double‑chance" to recover from a narrow defeat. The idea is that a team that has dominated for months should not be stripped of their season's work over a single game. This concept is not new in rugby league: South Australia's Big Ten League and other modular competitions use a McIntyre‑like system that ensures higher‑finishing clubs enjoy more safety nets.
The solver's argument is that NRLW's short calendar-just a handful of games-means the league cannot rely on the long‑term performance to balance competitiveness. What has surfaced, however, is that the bottom‑half of the ladder is increasingly volatile, with squads such as Canberra and the Wests Tigers making finals for the first time. These upsets forced a reassessment of which sides were truly "in the top tier", yet the Grand Final still found the familiar duos of the Roosters and Broncos.
Should the Roosters lose this time, it would reinforce Strange's message that the finals should reward sustained excellence in a longer‑run competition, rather than reduce it to a last‑minute fixture. The debate has therefore shifted from whether competition is becoming more balanced to whether the system of reward and punishment fits a modern, crowded schedule.
A More Rewarding Championship Climax
A pure knockout offers drama but can also produce a headline of injustice-an impeccable team sliding away from glory because of moments beyond the usual scope. In sum, the finals' narrative is moving beyond merely filming a dominant team to asking whether the structure of the championship itself can match the quality of the sport.
Strange, having been on both sides of these historical moments, is now in a unique position to advocate for a more rewarding, yet competitive, climax that could better serve the all‑the‑sport agenda while preserving the excitement of a single decisive match.
NRLW Finals System Roosters Broncos John Strange
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