{"id":121677,"date":"2025-09-05T22:03:22","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T22:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/121677\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T22:03:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T22:03:22","slug":"marky-mark-and-the-roosters-bunch-cement-nrl-finals-spot-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/121677\/","title":{"rendered":"Marky Mark and the Roosters Bunch cement NRL finals spot – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘Marky Mark’ and the Sydney Roosters<\/a> have spoiled the Alex Johnston<\/a> celebrations, booking themselves a place in the 2025 NRL Finals<\/a> series.<\/p>\n

All eyes may have been on Johnston toppling the all-time try-scoring record held by Ken Irvine, but it was his opposing winger who had the strong crowd of over 30,000 in the palm of their hands.<\/p>\n

Showing up with a bagful of tricks, it didn’t take long for the cross-code star to have everyone on their feet when he crossed within the opening five minutes of the contest.<\/p>\n

A week after scoring four tries against the Melbourne Storm<\/a>, the winger continued to make history on Friday night, becoming the first Roosters player to score seven doubles in a single season since 1936, guiding the club to another finals appearance in the Trent Robinson<\/a> era.<\/p>\n

Having the best of Johnston, who stood opposite him, Nawaqanitawase opened the scoring within the opening five minutes before crossing for another soon after.<\/p>\n

Continuing to press his case for Australia<\/a> Kangaroos selection, he didn’t stop there as he scored his third by jumping over Johnston in mid-air in only his 22nd match in the NRL<\/a> before finishing with 140 running metres, eight tackle busts, two line-breaks and a line-break assist.<\/p>\n

\"NRLSYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – JUNE 01: Mark Nawaqanitawase<\/a> of the Roosters makes a break during the round 13 NRL<\/a> match between Sydney Roosters<\/a> and Canberra Raiders<\/a> at Allianz Stadium, on June 01, 2025, in Sydney, Australia<\/a>. (Photo by Cameron Spencer\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Set to face the Cronulla Sharks<\/a> in the opening week of the finals, Daniel Tupou<\/a>, Connor Watson<\/a> and Angus Crichton<\/a> would join in on the fun with tries to their name before<\/p>\n

In what is set to be a highly anticipated match-up at Shark Park, the Roosters could also potentially head across the ditch to face the New Zealand Warriors<\/a> but would need the St George Illawarra Dragons<\/a> to upset the Penrith Panthers<\/a> on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

While the Roosters bask in the glory of appearing in another NRL<\/a> Finals series, it was once again another disappointing showing by the Cardinal and Myrtle.<\/p>\n

Failing to match the intensity level of their opponents, the Rabbitohs had their moments throughout the contest but failed to turn anything into points, bar a long-range solo effort by Jye Gray<\/a> that saw Ashton Ward<\/a> score under the sticks.<\/p>\n

Finishing this year’s campaign in the bottom four, the match was a reflection of the club’s entire 2025 NRL<\/a> season as they failed to reach the expectations of an expected top-eight finish.<\/p>\n

The club will also be sweating on the availability of halfback Jamie Humphreys<\/a> for the beginning of the 2026 NRL<\/a> season after he was sent to the sin-bin for a hip-drop tackle on Siua Wong<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘Marky Mark’ and the Sydney Roosters have spoiled the Alex Johnston celebrations, booking themselves a place in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-121677","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}