{"id":418598,"date":"2026-01-17T07:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T07:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/418598\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T07:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T07:19:08","slug":"a-four-year-trend-predicting-the-three-changes-in-the-2026-top-eight-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/418598\/","title":{"rendered":"A four-year trend: Predicting the three changes in the 2026 top eight – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NRL<\/a> has a trend when it comes to the top eight each season.<\/p>\n

For the last four seasons, three teams in, and three teams out has been the way of the rugby league world.<\/p>\n

Starting with the 2022 season, there have been three new clubs into the eight, and three from the previous season missing out.<\/p>\n

2022
In: North Queensland Cowboys<\/a>, Canberra Raiders<\/a>, Cronulla Sharks<\/a>
Out: Gold Coast Titans<\/a>, Manly Sea Eagles<\/a>, Newcastle Knights<\/a><\/p>\n

2023
In: Brisbane Broncos<\/a>, Newcastle Knights<\/a>, New Zealand Warriors<\/a>
Out: South Sydney Rabbitohs<\/a>, Parramatta Eels<\/a>, North Queensland Cowboys<\/a><\/p>\n

2024
In: Canterbury Bulldogs<\/a>, North Queensland Cowboys<\/a>, Manly Sea Eagles<\/a>
Out: Brisbane Broncos<\/a>, Canberra Raiders<\/a>, New Zealand Warriors<\/a><\/p>\n

2025
In: Brisbane Broncos<\/a>, Canberra Raiders<\/a>, New Zealand Warriors<\/a>
Out: North Queensland Cowboys<\/a>, Newcastle Knights<\/a>, Manly Sea Eagles<\/a><\/p>\n

That then begs the question.<\/p>\n

Which teams will move into the eight from outside, and which will fall from inside to outside in 2026.<\/p>\n

Here are the picks.<\/p>\n

Top eight inclusion 1: The Dolphins<\/p>\n

The Dolphins<\/a> are absolutely primed for their first finals appearance.<\/p>\n

In truth, I’ve got them sneaking into the top four this season, such is the power of their attack.<\/p>\n

It was on display right throughout the 2025 campaign, with the Redcliffe-based outfit managing to score more than every other side.<\/p>\n

That, despite an enormous toll of injuries, particularly in the forwards which quite clearly cost them defensively, and ultimately was the reason they couldn’t sneak into the finals for the first time in their first season under Kristian Woolf<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But if they get a clear run injury-wise, and with another year under their belt for a number of the youngsters, led by the already impressive halfback Isaiya Katoa<\/a>, there is little reason to doubt the Dolphins<\/a> have what it takes to make an enormous step forward this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NRL has a trend when it comes to the top eight each season. For the last four…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-418598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418598","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=418598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}