{"id":487495,"date":"2026-02-18T08:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T08:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/487495\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T08:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T08:00:08","slug":"nrl-set-to-scrap-suburban-grounds-for-finals-fixtures-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/487495\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL set to scrap suburban grounds for finals fixtures – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NRL<\/a>, in conjunction with the ARL Commission have informed clubs that they plan to re-adjust the NRL<\/a> finals location structure, deeming some suburban home grounds unacceptable to host a finals fixture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is set to see the Manly Sea Eagles<\/a> and Cronulla Sharks<\/a> come out worse for wear, who have been earmarked as the sides who will have to relocate to a neutral ground.<\/p>\n

As per The Daily Telegraph, the St George Illawarra Dragons<\/a> contacted the NRL<\/a> to clarify where their home turfs, WIN Stadium and Jubilee Stadium, fall in the matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the club remains confident they will still be able to host finals fixtures at their grounds.<\/p>\n

With Ocean Protect Stadium having limited capacity for quite some time now, there was plenty of speculation that the NRL<\/a> would intervene when Sharks finals games were held there in years gone by.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the Shire-based club sitting at around 13,000 people at capacity, there are plenty of fans missing out on the live experience and not contributing to the financial gain of the NRL<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And with 4 Pines Park being capped to around 20,000, it is the safest bet that the NRL<\/a> relocate the allocated fixtures to Allianz Stadium, where more fans can come and watch their sides.<\/p>\n

Although these clubs haven’t officially been deemed to have had their choice taken from them, it is now at the discretion of the NRL<\/a> to choose the greatest option for the code.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is a huge call for the NRL<\/a> to make, with holding a home game advantage at a club’s spiritual venue being a massive bonus in a finals match, going a long way in the chances of the local side winning.<\/p>\n

Get set for the footy with the FREE Zero Tackle 2026 NRL Season Guide!<\/a> Packed with 130+ pages of player profiles, team previews, insights and analysis, the 2026 NRL Season Guide<\/a> is built for fans who want the full picture. Download your free Season Guide HERE.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NRL, in conjunction with the ARL Commission have informed clubs that they plan to re-adjust the NRL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-487495","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\/487495","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=487495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}