Sign up now!!!<\/a><\/p>\nFlegler knocked out against Warriors | 00:50<\/p>\n
EELS\u2019 STRONG FINISH<\/p>\n
Parramatta have finished their NRLW season with consecutive victories, and four wins from their past five, with a 33-28 win over North Queensland leaving open the question of what might have been.<\/p>\n
No more evident was that with the try that put Queensland Origin captain Keilee Joseph over for her first ever career double via the nimble footwork and a line-break up the middle of the ground by Parramatta\u2019s best player in 2026, Abbi Church, off the back of some nice work by replacement dummy half Taneka Todhunter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThree of the best players we have in the NRLW, and they combine, this is a glimpse of the potential of the Parramatta Eels,\u201d former Jillaroos\u2019 representative Jo Barrett remarked on Fox League. \u201cThis is the sort of thing we can expect from this outfit in seasons to come, if they can remain injury free, and spend a little bit more time playing footy together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emerging star Rory Owen then sealed the win with a more than 90 metre effort, catching a misguided chip kick, powerfully shunning two defenders inside her own half and fell over the line for her second try of the day.<\/p>\n
It was the centre\u2019s second try of the day, bookending the match for Parramatta with her side\u2019s first and last, making it seven tries in her past four games and 10 tries for the season, the most by an Eel.<\/p>\n
Kimberly Hunt (2023) and Martha Mataele (2025-26) are the only two other Eels who have scored in four straight games.<\/p>\n
Losing their first six games costing Parramatta dearly by the end, and combined with their injury woes, the Eels finished the season with four wins in eighth. North Queensland slump to ninth after making the top four last season.<\/p>\n
The Cowboys lost winger Charlize Lloyd-Phillips early after she crossed in the fourth minute from a shift to the left edge, but was carried off in pain after injuring her left knee in the act of scoring the try, and did not return.<\/p>\n
Down 22-6, Parramatta looked long odds to win when Kennedy Cherrington was sin-binned after the Cowboys\u2019 fourth try, however during the 10 minutes the forward was off the field, the Eels scored three tries to tie the scores, had 100% of possession, 100% completion and 241 run metres.<\/p>\n
And that 10 minutes proved the difference.<\/p>\n
\u2018ROCKS AND DIAMONDS\u2019 DEBUT FOR TO\u2019O\u2019S NIECE<\/p>\n
After 18 tries in nine appearances for the Eels in the NSW Women\u2019s premiership, including two four try hauls, Freedom Crichton Ropati was granted her NRLW debut.<\/p>\n
And the niece of Brian To\u2019o, who was in attendance to support his relative, enjoyed the good and the bad rugby has to offer. <\/p>\n
Late in the first half, Crichton Ropati looked every bit as good as her uncle, flying high to capture a pin-point Rachael Pearson cross-field kick and score what appeared at first glance to be her first NRLW try, but the precision of the put down failed to meet her uncle\u2019s standards, losing the ball as she fell to the ground.<\/p>\n
Crichton Ropati then made an error in the second half which eventually cost the Eels another try with Makenzie Weale crossing the line.<\/p>\n
\u201cLittle bit of rocks and diamonds (for the debutant),\u201d commentator James Preston remarked on Fox League.<\/p>\n
But Barrett was impressed with what she saw and her sentiments were backed up by a pivotal ball-and-all tackle to shut down Cowboys\u2019 Abigail Roache from setting up a bounce back try, late in the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe looks quite at home,\u201d Barrett said. \u201cShe seems to be making the right moves at the right time, taking herself into heavy contact without any problems.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The trial of a smaller ball in Saturday\u2019s contest to avoid the NRLW\u2019s wooden spoon, won by Cronulla…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-598283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789233255_143_poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n