Roosters struggle against dominant Broncos

The Brisbane Broncos have all but booked their spot in this year's NRLW grand final, leaving the Sydney Roosters' campaign on life support in the process.

In wet and miserable conditions in Melbourne on Saturday afternoon, the Broncos virtually sealed their passage into a second consecutive grand final with a 20-0 victory over the Roosters.

It keeps alive the Broncos' unbeatean record in the NRLW since the competition's introduction last year, making it six wins from six games.

While it has been an ordinary week for the Broncos' men's side following their shellacking at the hands of Parramatta last Sunday, the women have helped change the club's fortunes.

The Roosters are now in the identical position as they were last year, starting the campaign without a win in their first two games.

While last year a victory in the last match of the regular season was enough to seal a spot in the decider, the Roosters now need the Dragons to knock off the Warriors at Mt Smart Stadium on Sunday to have any chance of repeating history.

If the Dragons manage to topple the Warriors, the Roosters will then need to beat St George Illawarra next week and hope the Broncos defeat the Warriors (and make up the points differential) to make the grand final at ANZ Stadium on October 6.

The Roosters were desperate to avenge the disappointment of last year's grand final loss to the Broncos, however instead they slumped to their third straight loss to Brisbane.

The Broncos raced out of the blocks, putting their opponents on the back foot in the opening exchanges.

Annette Brander opened the scoring for Brisbane, running off a lovely pass from Ali Brigginshaw to give the Broncos the first four-pointer of the match after just three minutes.

Brisbane then stretched out to a 10-0 lead courtesy of Amber Pilley, and held on to the double digit advantage at the break.

The Broncos then started the second half as they did the first, with Rona Peters crashing over under the sticks off a flat ball from Lavinia Gould.

Brigginshaw then extended her side's lead to 20 when she chased down her own chip to put the result beyond doubt.