The Australian Open has finished and the English cricketers are long gone, which means we\u2019re just weeks away from the start of the NRL season in Las Vegas on March 1 (AEDT).<\/p>\n
The kick-off times have been released, but before the Dragons, Bulldogs, Cowboys and Knights can start packing for Sin City, they must prepare for the trials that start on Saturday. <\/p>\n
All four teams have burning questions hovering over them in 2026, with the coaches about to see whether weeks of hard work under the summer sun have paid off.<\/p>\n
BULLDOGS<\/p>\n
All eyes were on mid-season recruit Lachlan Galvin in 2025, but he\u2019ll be locked away in the team hotel when he\u2019s in Vegas given he won\u2019t be old enough to enjoy what the glitter strip has to offer.<\/p>\n
Coach Cameron Ciraldo has one simple question in the halves \u2013 who to pick alongside Galvin?<\/p>\n
Matt Burton will get first crack, but Mitchell Woods is a young gun with plenty of promise who will likely feature in the NRL side this season.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unlikely that he plays in the pre-season trials after club boss Phil Gould revealed on X on January 29 that Woods had picked up an injury that was \u201cnothing major\u201d but would set him back a couple of weeks. <\/p>\n
That means the focus will be on the forwards over the next few weeks, with high-profile recruit Leo Thompson to add some grunt to a pack that has been missing an enforcer.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been great, he\u2019s been really good,\u201d prop Max King said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like the biggest thing that\u2019s surprised me is that we all know what Leo is like on the field, but it\u2019s off the field where he\u2019s a really deep thinker of the game, so he\u2019s not your average front-rower.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like he\u2019s added a lot of areas that we can work on as forwards, so it\u2019s been awesome to have his experience in the pack. We\u2019re expecting big things from him this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
COWBOYS<\/p>\n
The Cowboys were one of the biggest disappointments in 2025, and there\u2019s plenty of pressure on them to perform this season.<\/p>\n
Only the Titans conceded more points than them last year, but the focus will be on who plays in the halves.<\/p>\n
Rep star Tom Dearden has one starting spot locked up, with coach Todd Payten having to choose between Jake Clifford and Jaxon Purdue.<\/p>\n
Purdue has been electric at left centre but struggled to make an impact at five-eighth, with the youngster a free agent who will attract plenty of interest from rivals. <\/p>\n
\u201cI have a feeling Tom Dearden will be somewhere there, but who partners him, I\u2019m not too sure,\u201d club legend Michael Morgan said last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously \u2018Cliffo\u2019 did a great job last year when he was in the side, and Jaxon Purdue has big raps on him, but he\u2019s also done a great job in the centres for the club.\u201d<\/p>\n
DRAGONS<\/p>\n
While the bulk of the focus has been on new recruit Daniel Atkinson adding an attacking spark, the Dragons could spring some shocks on the wings with emerging talents Setu Tu and David Fale in the mix to earn starting spots. <\/p>\n
Fale got a crack for Penrith last year when they rested most of their stars and has impressed coach Shane Flanagan in his first pre-season with the club. <\/p>\n
It will be interesting to see who starts on Saturday against the Knights, with Flanagan telling his players that they\u2019ll get picked if they \u201ctrain well, trial well, play well\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are 22 player seats on the plane, and everyone wants to be on that,\u201d Flanagan said during the club\u2019s mini camp on the Central Coast last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one wants to get injured in the trials because they want to go to Vegas, but we\u2019ve got to do the hard work, so it\u2019s tricky with the way that we approach it, and we\u2019ve got to keep our fingers crossed a little bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really excited about it. They\u2019ve trained really well up to date, and bar Jacob Liddle (hamstring) there aren\u2019t many boys in rehab which is a good sign.\u201d<\/p>\n
KNIGHTS<\/p>\n
New coach Justin Holbrook said last week that he was \u201csick of looking at training vision\u201d and he just wanted the games to start.<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll get his wish this weekend but will be without his international stars as well as the injured brigade headlined by Kalyn Ponga. <\/p>\n
Holbrook is the perfect man to fix the league\u2019s worst attack in 2025 given his influence at the Roosters, and he has a massive decision to make in the halves that could determine the Knights\u2019 success this season.<\/p>\n
Dylan Brown arrives on the richest deal in NRL history, but three-time premiership winner Luke Keary said last week that he wanted to see the Kiwis star play five-eighth where he does his best work.<\/p>\n
Keary also wants Sandon Smith to control the team at halfback, with speedster Fletcher Sharpe \u2013 the other man vying for a halves spot \u2013 set to start alongside Smith on Saturday night. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe guys who won\u2019t play in the first trial are the international guys, so Phoenix (Crossland), Dylan Brown and Bradman Best won\u2019t play,\u201d Holbrook said.<\/p>\n
\u201cKP (Ponga) is not right. We all know he\u2019s working his way back through injury, and so is Dom Young and Dylan Lucas who won\u2019t play in that first trial. So probably six of our key guys from our 17 in round 1 won\u2019t play next week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe middles will get some game time, so Jacob Saifiti, Tyson Frizell and Trey Mooney will all play.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key is probably in the halves where Sandon Smith and Fletcher Sharpe will start in the halves, and \u2018Gags\u2019 (Dane Gagai) will play (in the outside backs), so we\u2019ve got a good mix of youth and experience for the trial against the Dragons.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Australian Open has finished and the English cricketers are long gone, which means we\u2019re just weeks away…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,4026,7618,163,4027,72590,3762,7992,4617,2623,761,762,158,17594,38350,85,777,106378],"class_list":["post-453759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bulldogs","tag-cameron-ciraldo","tag-cowboys","tag-dragons","tag-justin-holbrook","tag-kalyn-ponga","tag-knights","tag-lachlan-galvin","tag-las-vegas","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-pre-season","tag-selections","tag-sports","tag-todd-payten","tag-trials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453759","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=453759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}