{"id":850497,"date":"2026-08-10T17:46:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T17:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/850497\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T17:46:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T17:46:22","slug":"nrl-news-2026-grand-final-week-third-place-playoff-idea-peter-vlandys-comments-paul-gallen-allana-ferguson-phil-gould","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/850497\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026: Grand final week third place playoff idea; Peter V\u2019landys comments; Paul Gallen, Allana Ferguson; Phil Gould"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Gallen and Allana Ferguson have rubbished the NRL<\/a>\u2019s World Cup<\/a>-style third-place playoff idea after Peter V\u2019landys<\/a> confessed it\u2019s \u201cvery likely\u201d to go ahead this season. <\/p>\n

The plan would pit the losers of the preliminary finals against each other and was revealed in The Sydney Morning Herald<\/a> on Sunday. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Nicho Hynes and Cameron Munster after last year\u2019s preliminary final.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Bulldogs chief executive officer\u00a0Aaron Warburton was said to be the man behind the idea. <\/p>\n

ARLC chairman V\u2019landys said there was too much clear air in the lead-up to last year\u2019s grand final. <\/p>\n

\u201cLast year I sat back and saw Thursday, Friday and Saturday had nothing, no sport. It was clear air, in grand final week,\u201d he told 9News Sydney.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to myself why don\u2019t we have something on in those three days?\u201d<\/p>\n

V\u2019landys confirmed it could happen in just over a month. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very likely,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things I want to do at the NRL, we\u2019re a can do organisation. If we decide to do something, let\u2019s do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

How the idea will be received is interesting. Players are currently going through 27 rounds of football before finals, with the elite stars featuring in State of Origin and Test match football over the course of the year as well.<\/p>\n

Gallen isn\u2019t convinced.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood luck,\u201d he said sarcastically on Nine\u2019s 100% Footy. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Paul Gallen on 100% Footy.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

\u201cI think at the end of the day, when you get football players on the field they\u2019ll put their best foot forward, but to get them on there to play for a third place. I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you put someone out there for a third place and they do an ACL, then they\u2019re out for the next year also. It\u2019s a big risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferguson added the plan works for a World Cup when fans have travelled a long distance, but not for a regular competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen have we ever cared who came third? … I can\u2019t see that happening at all for the current playing group,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

The former Jillaroos star added a standalone NRLW grand final could be an option. <\/p>\n

V\u2019landys wasn\u2019t worried about player burnout. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Peter V\u2019landys.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

\u201cNo because if the prize money is sufficient, and you\u2019ve got the tribalism in the game (then it will work),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to come up with an idea where it is an important game, and that\u2019s the challenge. If you\u2019re going to take that game to the next level, then why play it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Fan backlash isn\u2019t concerning the NRL boss either. <\/p>\n

\u201cI see Twitter as the greatest tool for me, whatever they go against, I go with, because 99.9 per cent of the time they get it wrong,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

While V\u2019landys is no doubt set to face backlash, Phil Gould said he liked the \u201cthought bubble\u201d but thinks there\u2019s better content than a third-place playoff. <\/p>\n

Gould also suggested a knockout competition for teams outside the top eight could work, considering the lack of revenue they receive during September. <\/p>\n

\u201cI like the thought of putting content on there but I think we can do it a better way,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think football for teams that don\u2019t make the eight might be an incentive where players will play on because they\u2019ve got rep football coming up, it gives teams that miss the eight something to look forward to, to make cash and maybe blood younger players. I think that engages all the fans across the league.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Gallen and Allana Ferguson have rubbished the NRL\u2019s World Cup-style third-place playoff idea after Peter V\u2019landys confessed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-850497","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\/850497","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=850497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}