The tears fell and the bells tolled at the traditional NRLW grand final press conference on Friday, underscoring why the season decider marks the end of one era and the beginning of another.

The unbeaten Roosters are looking to avenge last year’s shock grand final defeat to Brisbane, as the game mourns the retirement of Ali Brigginshaw. The Broncos playmaker runs on to an NRLW field this weekend for the last time after two decades as a pioneer of women’s rugby league.

After her teammate Tamika Upton won the Dally M women’s player of the year award this week, there has been increasing momentum towards naming the accolade after Brigginshaw, who has played 66 NRLW games and 29 matches for Australia.

Broncos coach Scott Prince heaped praise on his captain. “She’s a special person, we love her, and she will be remembered in the game for such a long time,” he said. “I really hope that they name an award after Ali, I think she deserves that honour.”

Brigginshaw appeared less than comfortable with the attention, but there was no denying her status amid a crowd of roughly 300 at Martin Place in Sydney on Friday. The bells rang on the nearby clock tower just as she responded to the question of whether she could play NRLW again.

“This is really it,” she said, the sound echoing around the city streets. “I feel like I’ve come to that stage in my career where I want to go and explore what else there is in the game and it’s not necessarily the body that’s stopping me, it’s the mind and what I want to do and spending time with family is something that I miss.”

Brigginshaw called on newly appointed Australian Rugby League Commission executive chair Peter V’landys to appoint a head of women’s football as part of investment in the game expected under the $5.3bn broadcast deal announced this year, to forge a path for the NRL away from the men’s competition.

“I think we try and shape our game exactly what the men do, but there’s nothing saying we have to just follow in those footsteps,” she said. “We can go in a different direction, we can do what we want to do and what’s best for the players and the staff.”

The grand final on Sunday also marks the NRLW retirements of Roosters’ fullback Corban Baxter and forward Millie Elliott, who was brought to tears when speaking about the challenge of juggling football this year with looking after her daughter Gigi. “My mum has moved in with me to be able to help me get back to footy and support me through all of it,” Elliott said. “You don’t realise how much you love your mum until you become one.”

This theme of renewal was prominent despite the fact Sunday’s opponents return to the grand final one year after the Broncos eclipsed the then-unbeaten Roosters 22-18 in a sometimes spiteful encounter. The Roosters have star playmaker Tarryn Aiken fit this year, as well as Elliott – who missed last season on maternity leave – to augment a side that has lost just one match in more than two years.

Roosters coach John Strange admitted he missed Aiken last year, but her return complements five-eighth Jocelyn Kelleher. No one in the NRLW has more linebreak assists this season than Aiken. “She’s a pretty quiet sort of person off the field, but on the field she’s very vocal as a real leader,” Strange said.

The showdown in the halves doubles as an audition for the Jillaroos’ World Cup squad. This season the Broncos brought in Jesse Southwell, who has already played 53 NRLW matches and won two premierships for Newcastle but is still just 21, to play alongside Brigginshaw.

Strange said Kelleher, probably the least-renowned of the four, benefited from playing State of Origin this year. “She had confidence going into that but I guess when you’re making those squads and being validated by the staff that you’re selected, and your peers, it just gives you that confidence to go to another level which I think she has.”

Last year’s Karyn Murphy Medal winner, centre Mele Hufanga, has left the Broncos for the Warriors, but rookie centres Georgia Bartlett and Deleni Paitai, as well as young backrowers Reegan Hicks and Lillian Yarrow, have emerged as genuine contributors.

All will play second fiddle to Upton, however, who has been involved in almost half of the tries scored by Scott Prince’s Broncos side this season, and beat Kiwi Ferns halfback Raecene McGregor and Aiken for the Dally M this week.

Upton assumes the spotlight begrudgingly. “I really don’t like the attention, I’ll be perfectly honest,” she said. “But this is something you want to be a part of, grand final week, it’s obviously a very special week.”