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‘She laughed’: Explosive claim over huge GF controversy lights fuse for rematch
Classy Cleary accepts his first Dally M! | 02:47The fuse has been lit for Sunday’s NRL W grand final with Roosters players declaring Mele Hufanga did not get the ball down for her matchwinning try in last year’s decider.
The Roosters didn’t lose a game in the 2025 regular season but went down at the death when the barnstorming centre crashed over in the final five minutes to win it for the Broncos. Hufanga is no longer at the Broncos, but the Roosters are in the exact same position after another unbeaten regular season to take their non-finals winning streak to an astounding 26 games.
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“She did not get the ball down,” back-rower Jasmin Strange told the NewsWire. “It is what it is, and we need to take decisions like that out of the game and just be so much better this weekend so stuff like that doesn’t even matter. Strange’s left hand appeared to be under the ball, while teammate Olivia Kernick used her strength to hold Hufanga up as she tried twice to ground the ball.
Mele Hufanga allegedly laughed when asked if she got the ball down. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images“You might have to go watch the replay,” superstar centre Jess Sergis said with a wry smile when asked for her thoughts. Dynamic dummy-half Keeley Nizza was initially bumped off by Hufanga on her way to the line but was more diplomatic about the call.
“It’s rugby league. You get some of those calls, and sometimes you don’t. The only thing you can do in that situation is look at how you can be better. Nizza was involved in an equally controversial call a few years earlier in the 2021 grand final that was played in 2022 due to the competition being postponed because of Covid.
She was playing for the Dragons against the Roosters when the Tricolours scored the winning try with four minutes to go. But the NRL later conceded that play should have been stopped because a Roosters trainer was treating an injured Sarah Togatuki on the 10m line right next to Olivia Higgins, who beat the defence to score.
“I was frustrated at myself for the situation because I could have done better,” said Nizza, who tried to strip the ball. “That’s rugby league. Things happen. We were actually talking about that game recently and how it was such a fantastic atmosphere with only the girls playing.
“It was unfortunate timing, but it wasn’t the reason we lost the game. The Roosters were definitely the better team on the day. ”
Grand Final Jasmin Strange Keeley Nizza NRL Roosters NRLW Mele Hufanga Controversy
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