Join now and get your first month for just $1<\/a>.<\/p>\nScroll down to see the current predicted Week 1 NRL finals fixture and the finals scenarios for all 10 contenders.<\/p>\n
All times AEST.<\/p>\n
CURRENT NRL LADDER (Before Thursday night)<\/p>\n
1. Raiders (44 pts, +186)<\/p>\n
2. Storm (40 pts, +228)<\/p>\n
3. Bulldogs (38 pts, +138)<\/p>\n
4. Broncos (34 pts, +156)<\/p>\n
5. Sharks (34 pts, +91)<\/p>\n
6. Warriors (34 pts, +22)<\/p>\n
7. Panthers (31 pts, +87)<\/p>\n
8. Roosters (30 pts, +102)<\/p>\n
9. Dolphins (28 pts, +87)<\/p>\n
10. Sea Eagles (28 pts, +20)<\/p>\n
ROUND 27 GAMES<\/p>\n
Broncos vs Storm, Thursday 7:50pm at Suncorp Stadium<\/p>\n
Sea Eagles vs Warriors, Friday 6pm at 4 Pines Park<\/p>\n
Roosters vs Rabbitohs, Friday 8pm at Allianz Stadium<\/p>\n
Dragons vs Panthers, Saturday 3pm at WIN Stadium<\/p>\n
Titans vs Tigers, Saturday 5:30pm at Cbus Super Stadium<\/p>\n
Bulldogs vs Sharks, Saturday 7:35pm at Accor Stadium<\/p>\n
Dolphins vs Raiders, Sunday 2pm at Kayo Stadium<\/p>\n
Eels vs Knights, Sunday 4pm at CommBank Stadium<\/p>\n
Bye: Cowboys<\/p>\n
CURRENT PREDICTED WEEK 1 FINALS<\/p>\n
First Qualifying Final: Raiders (1st) vs Broncos (4th)<\/p>\n
Likely played night of Saturday September 13 at GIO Stadium<\/p>\n
First Elimination Final: Sharks (5th) vs Roosters (8th)<\/p>\n
Likely played afternoon of Sunday September 14 at Shark Park<\/p>\n
Second Elimination Final: Warriors (6th) vs Panthers (7th)<\/p>\n
Likely played evening of Saturday September 13 at Go Media Stadium<\/p>\n
Second Qualifying Final: Storm (2nd) vs Bulldogs (3rd)<\/p>\n
Likely played night of Friday September 12 at AAMI Park<\/p>\n
Does Walsh need a PR handler? | 02:56<\/p>\n
FINALS SCENARIOS FOR THE REMAINING CONTENDERS<\/p>\n
1. Canberra Raiders (44 pts, +186)<\/p>\n
To play: Dolphins at Kayo Stadium, Sunday 2pm<\/p>\n
Win or lose: Finish 1st<\/p>\n
The Raiders are guaranteed two home finals and the minor premiership. They\u2019ll face either the Broncos, Sharks or Warriors in their qualifying final.<\/p>\n
2. Melbourne Storm (40 pts, +228)<\/p>\n
To play: Broncos at Suncorp Stadium, Thursday 7:50pm<\/p>\n
Win or lose: Finish 2nd<\/p>\n
Technically the Storm could drop into third with an absolutely massive loss and a similarly massive win by the Bulldogs, but realistically they\u2019re set to host the Bulldogs in a qualifying final, likely on Friday night.<\/p>\n
3. Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs (38 pts, +138)<\/p>\n
To play: Sharks at Accor Stadium, Saturday 7:50pm<\/p>\n
Win or lose: Finish 3rd<\/p>\n
Technically the Bulldogs could move into second with an absolutely massive win and a similarly massive loss by the Storm, but realistically they\u2019re heading to Melbourne for a qualifying final, likely on Friday night.<\/p>\n
4. Brisbane Broncos (34 pts, +156)<\/p>\n
To play: Storm at Suncorp Stadium, Thursday 7:50pm<\/p>\n
Win: Finish 4th<\/p>\n
Lose: Finish 4th if Sharks and Warriors lose, 5th if one wins, 6th if both win<\/p>\n
Thankfully the Broncos, the Storm have nothing to play for tonight, as Michael Maguire\u2019s men need a win to clinch a top-four finish. But if they\u2019re beaten they\u2019ll have to wait nervously until Saturday night to learn where they\u2019ll play in week one of the finals. Neither the Sharks nor Warriors are favoured to win, but if they both win, the Broncos could end up hosting the Panthers in an elimination final in a worst-case scenario.<\/p>\n
Dropping Shibasaki the ‘right call’ | 02:33<\/p>\n
5. Cronulla Sharks (34 pts, +91)<\/p>\n
To play: Bulldogs at Accor Stadium, Saturday 7:50pm<\/p>\n
Win: Finish 4th if Broncos lose, 5th if Broncos win<\/p>\n
Lose: Finish 5th if Warriors lose, 6th if Warriors win<\/p>\n
The Sharks need some help from the Storm to sneak into the top four. If the Broncos lose, that opens the door for Cronulla to book a qualifying final date with Canberra. Otherwise they\u2019re hosting an elimination final against the Roosters, Panthers or Dolphins.<\/p>\n
6. New Zealand Warriors (34 pts, +22)<\/p>\n
To play: Sea Eagles at 4 Pines Park, Friday 6pm<\/p>\n
Win: Finish 4th if Broncos and Sharks lose, 5th if one wins, 6th if both win<\/p>\n
Lose: Finish 6th<\/p>\n
The Warriors\u2019 poor points differential effectively counts as another loss in the standings, so they need both the Broncos (vs Storm) and Sharks (vs Bulldogs) to lose if they\u2019re to sneak into the top four. They also need to beat the Sea Eagles, which seems entirely realistic except the Warriors have lost four of their last six games. With a loss they\u2019re locked into 6th and are very likely to host Penrith in an elimination final.<\/p>\n
7. Penrith Panthers (31 pts, +87)<\/p>\n
To play: Dragons at WIN Stadium, Saturday 3pm<\/p>\n
Win: Finish 7th<\/p>\n
Lose: Finish 7th if Roosters lose, 8th if Roosters win<\/p>\n
Taking care of business against the Dragons will lock the Panthers into 7th, sending them into an elimination final against either the Warriors, Sharks or Broncos (in order of likelihood). With a loss they could fall into 8th but either way they\u2019d play an elimination final against one of those teams, so the only impact would be on the rest of their finals bracket and who they could play in the semi and preliminary finals.<\/p>\n
8. Sydney Roosters (30 pts, +102)<\/p>\n
To play: Rabbitohs at Allianz Stadium, Friday 8pm<\/p>\n
Win: Finish 7th if Panthers lose, 8th if Panthers win<\/p>\n
Lose: Finish 8th if Dolphins lose, miss finals if Dolphins win (by enough)<\/p>\n
The Roosters simply must defeat the Rabbitohs to ensure themselves a finals place and a comfortable weekend. A victory will book them an elimination final against one of the Sharks, Warriors or Broncos. But if they lose on Friday night they\u2019ll be nervously waiting until Sunday, when the Dolphins will have the chance to leapfrog them with a big enough win over the resting Raiders. <\/p>\n
9. Dolphins (28 pts, +87)<\/p>\n
To play: Raiders at Kayo Stadium, Sunday 2pm<\/p>\n
Win: Finish 8th if Roosters lose (by enough), otherwise miss finals<\/p>\n
Lose: Miss finals<\/p>\n
First, the Dolphins need the Roosters to lose to the Rabbitohs on Friday night. If that happens they\u2019ll know exactly how much they need to beat the resting Raiders by on Sunday afternoon. The points differential gap is not that substantial so it\u2019s plausible they\u2019ll be making their maiden finals appearance – which would come in an elimination final against the Sharks, Warriors or Broncos – but it all rests on the Rabbitohs for now.<\/p>\n
10. Manly Sea Eagles (28 pts, +20)<\/p>\n
To play: Warriors at 4 Pines Park, Friday 6pm<\/p>\n
Win: Finish 8th if Roosters and Dolphins lose (by a huge amount), otherwise miss finals<\/p>\n
Lose: Miss finals<\/p>\n
They would need to smash the Warriors by 40-odd points while the Roosters and Dolphins both get demolished by 40-odd points to have any chance of making it. So we\u2019re putting them here because it\u2019s mathematically possible, but… no.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The last round of the NRL season has arrived with 10 teams mathematically in the hunt for finals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-117619","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}