Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nNext week, Melbourne are expected to kick off the playoff series, hosting Canterbury in their qualifying final.<\/p>\n
Penrith will travel to Auckland to take on the Warriors and the Roosters will head to Cronulla in the other elimination final.<\/p>\n
But the contentious match-up is the Raiders, taking on the rampaging Broncos.<\/p>\n
Canberra will play the Dolphins on Sunday, and Ricky Stuart has called for the NRL to give the minor premiers the chance to pick when they play.<\/p>\n
Qualifying finals are traditionally played on Friday night and Saturday. But the draw for the final round has put the Raiders at a disadvantage, given the Broncos played on Thursday and Canberra play three days later on Sunday.<\/p>\n
It means the Raiders would have a six-day turnaround if they are to play in the usual qualifying-final timeslot, Saturday evening.<\/p>\n
News.com.au understands Raiders officials have been pushing the NRL behind the scenes for their match to be scheduled on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n
And Ricky Stuart didn\u2019t hold back on Saturday, saying they deserve to pick when they play.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cWe have (earned the right to pick when we play),\u201d Stuart said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re minor premiers and we need the maximum turnaround as possible from the Sunday game tomorrow.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to be playing against a team that\u2019s got nine days, so it\u2019s an unbelievable advantage (for Brisbane if the match is on Saturday).<\/p>\n
\u201cThat one extra day is what we deserve for being minor premiers.\u201d<\/p>\n
And it appears Stuart\u2019s pleas have been answered, with Michael Maguire telling ABC Sport he has been informed the clash will take place on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been told Sunday mate, Sunday at 4pm,\u201d Maguire said.<\/p>\n
The NRL will finalise their schedule for the opening week of finals on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The winners of the two qualifying finals will go straight to week three, while the two losers will take on the winners from the elimination finals.<\/p>\n
Predicted NRL Finals fixtures:<\/p>\n
Qualifying Final: Friday, September 12, 7.50pm, AAMI Park<\/p>\n
Melbourne Storm vs. Canterbury Bulldogs<\/p>\n
Elimination Final: Saturday, September 13, 4.05pm, Go Media Stadium<\/p>\n
NZ Warriors vs. Penrith Panthers <\/p>\n
Elimination Final: Saturday, September 13, 7.50pm, Sharks Stadium<\/p>\n
Cronulla Sharks vs. Sydney Roosters<\/p>\n
Qualifying Final: Sunday, September 14, 4.05pm, GIO Stadium<\/p>\n
Canberra Raiders vs. Brisbane Broncos<\/p>\n
Originally published as Ricky Stuart calls out unfair Broncos advantage as NRL finals locked in<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The top eight has been locked in after the Panthers beat the Dragons on Saturday, and as attention…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-123225","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\/123225","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=123225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}