{"id":803190,"date":"2026-07-16T04:10:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T04:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/803190\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T04:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T04:10:13","slug":"nrl-tips-round-20-brad-fittler-on-cronulla-sharks-v-newcastle-knights-teams-expert-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/803190\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL tips round 20, Brad Fittler on Cronulla Sharks v Newcastle Knights, teams, expert predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brought to you by<\/p>\n

The NRL<\/a> premiership credentials of Cronulla<\/a> are evidenced in one player picked on the team\u2019s bench this weekend, according to Brad Fittler<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Sharks are riding high after a 66-0 thumping of the Dolphins last week<\/a> and are sitting fourth on the competition ladder.<\/p>\n

\"Billy<\/p>\n

Billy Burns of the Sharks in action.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve rocketed into title contention alongside the likes of the Panthers, Roosters, and Warriors and some believe they are steaming towards their first premiership in a decade.<\/p>\n

They host the Knights<\/a> at Shark Park on Friday night in an intriguing contest.<\/p>\n

Newcastle and Cronulla each sit on 26 competition points and the winner could leapfrog the Roosters into third place, even if it\u2019s short-lived given the Chooks play Melbourne on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The Knights have been in solid form – despite a narrow loss to South Sydney on Sunday – but not a single expert on Nine\u2019s tipping panel is backing them to win on Friday.<\/p>\n

Fittler reckons the benching of gun backrower Billy Burns is proof of Cronulla\u2019s current form.<\/p>\n

\u201cBilly Burns has been one of the best players all year for Cronulla, and he is actually on the bench,\u201d Fittler told Wide World of Sports\u2019 NRL Tips.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it shows you how far their depth goes. I\u2019m going to go the Sharks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Knights were unlucky (against South Sydney last week). The wingers, Dom Young up against Ronaldo Mulitalo, should be excited and interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sharks will be third on the NRL ladder if they can beat the Knights, given they have a better points differential than the Roosters.<\/p>\n

The Chooks will reclaim third place if they beat the Storm in Sydney on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Scroll below for round 20 tips by all Nine\u2019s expert tipsters!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brought to you by The NRL premiership credentials of Cronulla are evidenced in one player picked on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-803190","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\/803190","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=803190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}