{"id":441308,"date":"2026-01-27T19:16:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T19:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/441308\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T19:16:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T19:16:19","slug":"witzer-pre-season-challenge-nrl-2026-nrl-trials-schedule-rules-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/441308\/","title":{"rendered":"Witzer Pre-Season Challenge, NRL 2026, NRL trials, schedule, rules, need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Witzer Pre-Season Challenge kicks off on February 7 and will feature 16 matches across three weeks including four double-header matchdays.<\/p>\n

From Queanbeyan and Mudgee in NSW to Mackay and the Sunshine Coast in Queensland and Napier in New Zealand, the Pre-Season Challenge offers an early glimpse at the NRL stars in action as teams put the finishing touches on their Premiership preparations.<\/p>\n

The Witzer Pre-Season Challenge launches with the four Las Vegas teams – Dragons, Bulldogs, Knights, Cowboys – featuring in Round 1 at Jubilee Oval.<\/p>\n

In Round 2, the Raiders return to their spiritual home at Seiffert Oval in Queanbeyan to face the Storm, while McDonald Jones Stadium in Newcastle plays host to a double-header featuring the Wests Tigers vs Roosters and Knights vs Bulldogs clashes.<\/p>\n

In Round 3, a Leichhardt Oval double-header kicks things off before a massive day at Gosford’s Polytec Stadium where the Sharks meet the Raiders and the Roosters meet the Eels.<\/p>\n

The winning team will take home $100,000 and a huge shot of confidence to take into the 2026 NRL Telstra Premiership.<\/p>\n

Watch every game of the Witzer Pre-Season Challenge exclusive to Fox League, available on\u00a0Kayo Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The rules<\/p>\n


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Team Lists<\/p>\n

Midweek Submission: Tuesday 3.00pm AEDT<\/p>\n

28-player squad. (1-13 with 15 interchange players)\u00a0<\/p>\n

1-hour Submission: One hour prior to kick-off<\/p>\n

28-player squad (1-13 with 15 interchange players)<\/p>\n

Interchange<\/p>\n

Unlimited interchange will apply. Up to 28 players may be used in each game.<\/p>\n

Bonus points<\/p>\n

The addition of bonus points to go alongside points earned by winning or drawing a match ensures teams have something to play for in every contest, no matter what’s happening on the scoreboard.\u00a0<\/p>\n


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Alongside points accumulated through results, the number of bonus points a team can snare each game could make all the difference on what is sure to be a congested ladder.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The club with the most points at the conclusion of the two rounds will be declared the winner of the Witzer Pre-Season Challenge and claim the $100,000 in prizemoney.<\/p>\n

Tiebreaker process\u00a0<\/p>\n

Given the short duration of the Witzer Pre-Season Challenge, there is a good chance the winner will have to be decided via a countback, and the NRL has devised a system to find a winner should teams finish tied on points at the top of the ladder.<\/p>\n


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Defending champs<\/p>\n

The Broncos piled on 80 points in two games to make it back-to-back Witzer Pre-Season Challenge titles. They kicked off with a 50-12 win over the Titans in Toowoomba before downing the Bulldogs 30-12 at Redcliffe. The Dragons were the only other team to win both their matches in last year’s Pre-Season Challenge but the Broncos had a superior points differential and pocketed the $100,000. With the NRL premiers heading to England to face Hull KR in the World Club Challenge on February 19, a new champion will be crowned in the Witzer Pre-Season Challenge.<\/p>\n

The Schedule
\nRound 1\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Witzer Pre-Season Challenge kicks off on February 7 and will feature 16 matches across three weeks including…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-441308","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\/441308","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=441308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}