Isabelle Kelly's world was rocked when she suddenly lost her mother at just 17 years of age. Despite her mother never getting to watch her play rugby league, it is her memory driving the Roosters star towards a premiership.

Courageous Sydney Roosters skipper Isabelle Kelly routinely pushes her body to extremes because she has an unfortunate wisdom that comes with worse pain.

Isabelle Kelly has detailed how she draws upon the hardest days of her life after the sudden death of her mother as an inspiration to play almost with any injury in the NRLW. Kelly recovered from a subluxed elbow to feature in the Sydney Roosters' semi-final win over Newcastle, just a week after the elbow joint dislocated and fell back into place.

The Sharks weren't supposed to make the NRLW grand final just like Annessa Biddle wasn't supposed to dominate one of the game's best attacking players last week, but things have a habit of going the Cronulla centre's way.

Isabelle Kelly used the pain of back-to-back finals exits to help her overcome the physical pain of a dislocated elbow and lead Sydney Roosters to Sunday’s premiership decider against the Sharks.