180 million people have seen this Raiders star 'smash people', as grand final berth looms

Sheridan Gallagher gets a bit red in the face when she hears that 180 million people may have seen her NRLW highlights with the Green Machine ahead of this weekend's do-or-die preliminary final.

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Sheridan Gallagher has been doing extra training during the season. Pictures Raiders Media, Instagram

Maybe that's why Gallagher's Raiders highlight reel sits right beside Coffey's internet-melting Garrett clip online, which he said attracted more than 180 million views globally, and saw his Instagram followers alone rise from 90,000 to 347,000.

"It's special in this day and age how social media can promote you so far and wide," Gallagher said ahead of the Raiders' clash with the Sydney Roosters on Saturday night.

"Billy has been a massive supporter of mine, so I'm glad to see him get the recognition that he deserves.

"He brings a different lens to the way that us as female athletes should train, and I really leant into it when I was playing in Newcastle, and I'm a strong believer in what he does."

Coffey is a former rugby player turned "collision intelligence" coach, boasting multiple clients in combat sports, NRL, NRLW, union and even internationally in American football, with the viral Garrett clip exposing his work to an all-new audience.

Over the past three years he has trained with former Young Matilda and A-League forward Gallagher between her NRLW and soccer career.

In rugby league while with the Knights and then the Raiders, Gallagher's focus with Coffey has been on enhancing her explosiveness, speed, collision training, improving timing and mobility, and increasing her aerobic fitness.

The intense sessions have helped Gallagher to become an NRLW standout, and in her first season in Canberra she's now one win away from playing her second grand final, after a 2023 triumph with the Newcastle Knights.

"I probably wouldn't be where I'm at physically without him [Coffey], and I guess mentally too he's helped me in a different side of the game," Gallagher said.

"He's someone that I truly listen to and he's helped me go a long way."

"It's cool to be here with the Raiders in the club's first finals series, and now we've got one finals game under our belt, I can't wait to see what we bring against the Roosters," she added.

"Finals footy is a different beast... but we've got nothing to lose so we'll go out there and give it all we can. If we could go all the way and bring a trophy back here, I think the capital would lose it.

"It's so cool to see what we've worked so hard for coming to fruition."

On top of the work Gallagher does with her Raiders coaches, when she has a week to get back to Coffey's gym in Newcastle, they'll train together, or if she's in Canberra the pair will review game tape remotely. Then during the off-season it's a daily grind.

Coffey said on the NRLW field Gallagher has speed, power and "just loves to smash people", and back in the gym, she is among the strongest and most dynamic elite athletes he trains with.

It's these qualities that should terrify the Sydney Roosters when they meet Gallagher and the Raiders squad this weekend.

"She's a weapon," Coffey said.

"She'll be back squatting 180, just banging it up, she'll be doing a shoulder press in the 40s, just throwing them around like they're nothing, and I don't let my my players deadlift because I think it's silly, but she'll be pulling from her knees about 250.

"Fitness-wise, lactic acid-wise, she broke the the female record at my facility and challenges the males on three different apparatuses.

"My passion is the women's game, and I want to put them in front of audiences to see the calibre of female athlete we have.

"I made that my mission because I don't believe they get paid enough for what they do and now I've got a platform, I want to show the world."

Coffey gets emotional when talking about his pride in Gallagher's journey so far, which has not always been an easy road.

He believes that since she arrived in Canberra from Newcastle as the Knights' leading try-scorer, and made a massive positional shift from the wing to fullback, Gallagher has taken her game to the next level in the capital.

The off-field dedication has led to her impressive form for Canberra through the year, and now the Raiders are knocking on the door of the club's first NRLW premiership.

"I've got goosebumps thinking about it," Coffey said. "I'll be bawling my eyes out if she gets it.

"No-one knows the turmoil that athletes go through. She's moved from a club that was doing well to a place she's never lived, and backed herself.

"She's put so much work in and she truly believes in herself now. I'm already emotional, I'm just so proud of her."

Saturday: Sydney Roosters v Canberra Raiders at Moore Park, Sydney, 7.50pm

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