On Sunday 4 October, the Sydney Roosters ran onto Accor Stadium twice and won both times. In the afternoon, the women beat Brisbane 30-6 to complete a perfect season. That night, the men beat Newcastle 19-18 to end a seven-year wait. A year earlier, Brisbane had done the same thing: their women upset the Roosters 22-18, and their men beat Melbourne 26-22. Two years running, one club has finished the season holding both trophies.

That is not a coincidence, and it should change how clubs think about success. You cannot pick a priority. A club that treats the men’s team as the main event and the women’s side as an add-on will eventually see the gap in its standards, its resources and its culture. The clubs lifting both trophies have one thing in common: the whole organisation is pulling in the same direction.

The Roosters women are the proof. They lost the NRLW grand final in 2018, 2020 and 2025, the last as undefeated minor premiers, and they won their first premiership in the postponed 2021 season. This year they came back against the very team that beat them. They were 26-0 up at half-time, Brydie Parker scored a hat-trick, and the side farewelled retiring forwards Millie Elliott and Corban Baxter with a premiership. That resilience mirrors the men, who came from 12-0 down in a grand final and held on by a point. The same character runs through both squads.

Brisbane showed the other side of it. Their men ended a 19-year drought, and their women won a fourth NRLW title with a late try from Mele Hufanga. Tamika Upton collected her fifth NRLW premiership and Ali Brigginshaw her fourth. Neither team won in isolation.

The women’s game has also changed what a premiership means for a club. The 2025 NRLW grand final drew 46,288 fans to Accor Stadium, the biggest crowd of the women’s season. A winning women’s team brings new supporters, new stars and new champions who belong to the club as much as anyone in the men’s squad. Kelly, Parker and Upton are now names that fans of both codes know.

It is not easy, and it is not meant to be. The 2026 Broncos are a reminder, with the men losing 17 games and missing the finals a year after the double, while the women still reached the decider. Sustaining success on both fronts is doubly hard. But it is also doubly rewarding, and the clubs that treat the men’s and women’s programs as one organisation will be the ones in the frame every October.