Roosters praised for 'very rare' act ahead of Grand Final

Denan Kemp has spoken highly of the Sydney Roosters following their decision to not seek an exemption on Connor Watson’s head knock ahead of Sunday’s Grand Final clash, helping prioritise his health and safety.

During Sydney’s 36-20 preliminary final win over the Dolphins at Suncorp Stadium, Watson suffered a concussion during the 31st minute after only coming on a minute prior.

The 30-year-old was deemed to have a Category One concussion. And after undergoing tests throughout the week, the Roosters were unable to receive clearance to play.

At this stage, the club could have chosen to challenge the ruling made by the independent doctor but elected against it, with Kemp giving credit to the club.

“I wanna give the Roosters so much credit that they didn't push for an exemption,” Kemp explained on SEN’s Saturday League Kick-Off.

“Think about how important he has been to this side and think about how important this game is for the Roosters.

“The Roosters didn't seek a formal exemption, so that means that maybe he could've been cleared, but they've gone, ‘You know what, we're gonna put his safety first’.

“Then you look at the amount of players like (Luke) Keary rested for quite a while. You had obviously Boyd Cordner retired (due to medical reasons), Jake Friend also had some issues.

“I just wanna commend the Roosters because that is a brave call and putting his safety first before everything. That's very rare.”

Following this decision, it means Watson is the first player to miss an NRL Grand Final due to the NRL’s 11-day stand-down period for a concussion.

With the utility set to move to St. George Illawarra for 2027 before going to PNG in 2028, he has officially played his final game for the Tricolours.

Following his concussion, there have been calls to have the Grand Final moved a week later in future years to avoid any players missing the match due to a head knock.

But the former Broncos and Warriors winger is unsure whether a two-week break between the preliminary finals and Grand Final would be too long from a playing perspective.

“That's a tough one, two weeks is a long time and look as a player, I wouldn't like it,” he continued.

“I don't wanna be sitting around thinking about a GF for two weeks. From a content perspective, if you could plan it correctly and put other things in place to make it really ramp up, then maybe.

“I like the fact that we see this heroic prelim and then we barely get to take a breath, and we're already into finals footy. I feel like you'd probably sit on the prelim a bit too long then if you were to wait two weeks.

“If I'm a team that's in the top four or top two and I win week one, that'd be three weeks off in finals footy.

“You don't want that. You wanna be battle-hardened.”

Newcastle and Sydney are set to battle it out for the Provan-Summons Trophy on Sunday at Accor Stadium in Sydney.

SEN League will have live coverage of the NRLW and NRL Grand Finals across our radio network and on the SEN app from 12pm AEDT with Crunch Time NRL.

Kick-off takes place at 4pm and 7:30pm.