Liz MacGregor is hoping some of the magic dust from Newcastle last year will travel south and settle on her again in Wagga Wagga as the Bulldogs prepare to face top-of-the-table Broncos in the NRLW 2026 Magic Round.\u00a0<\/p>\n
MacGregor scored two tries in the 14-14 draw with the Titans in 2025 with the Bulldogs enjoying back-to-back wins in 2026 over the Sharks and Dragons as they head to Wagga Wagga.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBroncos are a top-two side and won the grand final but I think we\u2019re seeing a slightly different side this year where teams are getting quite close to them,\u201d MacGregor told NRL.com.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s exciting to see where we land in that situation and see if we can compete with them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will give us a good idea of how well we\u2019re going in this comp if we give the Broncos a real good shake.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Sharks win [in Round 3] gave us a lot of confidence beating a top-four standard team, so we didn\u2019t want to take a backward step [against the Dragons].<\/p>\n
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Bulldogs v Dragons \u2013 Round 4, 2026<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to use that momentum, keep it going for this week and Magic Round.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
MacGregor says the Bulldogs are not intimidated by the premiers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have some big names but we have such a good connection in this team right now that I feel we can really put it to them,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When Canterbury\u2019s rookie utility hooker Evelyn Roberts takes a run at the Broncos she will see some familiar faces after being a member of Brisbane\u2019s BMD Premiership side in the QRL competition and training with the NRLW squad last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Roberts played five-eighth and helped the Broncos to the QRL Women\u2019s premiership with a win over Burleigh Bears.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Evelyn Roberts Try<\/p>\n
She is enjoying the transition to hooker.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe difference is me defending in the middle a lot more and getting my forwards going,\u201d Roberts said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got to get those quick play-the-balls so our halves and outside backs can play off that.”<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the 18-year-old\u2019s maiden NRLW season and she\u2019s been asking a lot of questions of coach Brayden Wiliame and captain Tayla Preston.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI lean a lot on her when I need answers to my questions about certain areas of footy,\u201d Roberts said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s very encouraging to make sure the younger girls like me are up to par on what she needs from us.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a massive learning curve but the girls here and coaching staff have been very approachable to make my job easier.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Elizabeth MacGregor 2nd Try<\/p>\n
MacGregor, who came from the Roosters pathway system to the Bulldogs, pointed to her five-eighth and New Zealand international Ash Quinlan for inspiration.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou saw how she gave 110 per cent chasing down players and making try-saving tackles,\u201d MacGregor said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe also sets me up for a lot of my tries so I\u2019m very grateful for that. She\u2019s older than most of the girls here so she brings great experience.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liz MacGregor is hoping some of the magic dust from Newcastle last year will travel south and settle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":832747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-832746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832746","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=832746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}