Sharks<\/a> semi-final, but he may struggle to crack the Roosters 19 with Angus Crichton making his\u00a0long-awaited return from a serious foot injury.\u00a0Sam\u00a0Walker\u00a0(ankle) missed Week 2 but is a live chance to return in the halves, likely pushing Hugo Savala back into the centres and Billy Smith to the bench.<\/p>\nPenrith Panthers vs. Newcastle Knights(Sunday, September 27 at Accor Stadium,\u00a04:00pm AEST)<\/p>\n
Penrith predicted team:<\/p>\n
1. Dylan Edwards
2. Thomas Jenkins
3. Paul Alamoti*
4.\u00a0Casey McLean
5. Brian To’o
6.\u00a0Jack Cole
7. Nathan Cleary* (c)
8. Moses Leota
9. Mitch Kenny
10.\u00a0Lindsay Smith
11. Isaiah\u00a0Papali’i
12.\u00a0Liam Martin
13. Isaah Yeo<\/p>\n
14. Freddy\u00a0Lussick
15.\u00a0Scott Sorensen
16. Liam Henry
17.\u00a0Billy Phillips
18.\u00a0Billy Scott
19. Jack Cogger\/Blaize Talagi<\/p>\n
Panthers team news:<\/p>\n
All eyes remain on the foot of Nathan Cleary.\u00a0Luke Garner (groin) was a late withdrawal against the Roosters in Week 1 and while he may be available for selection, the strong centres performance of Blaize Talagi\u00a0and likely availability of Paul Alamoti (hamstring)\u00a0will almost certainly see him confined to the reserves bench at best. Isaah Yeo (pectoral) has been used off the bench since returning from injury in Round 27 but expect him to be named at lock once again, at least to begin the week. Jack Cogger is available but may have trouble unseating Jack Cole in the halves.<\/p>\n
Newcastle predicted team:<\/p>\n
1. Kalyn Ponga (c)
2.\u00a0Dom Young
3. Dane Gagai
4.\u00a0Bradman Best
5. Greg Marzhew
6.\u00a0Fletcher Sharpe
7.\u00a0Sandon Smith
8. Tyson Frizell
9.\u00a0Phoenix Crossland
10.\u00a0Cody Hopwood
11.\u00a0Jermaine\u00a0McEwen
12.\u00a0Francis\u00a0Manuleleua
13. Mat Croker<\/p>\n
14.\u00a0Harrison Graham
15. Dylan Lucas
16. Pasami Saulo
17.\u00a0Thomas Cant
18.\u00a0Lachlan Crouch
19.\u00a0Fletcher Hunt<\/p>\n
Knights team news:<\/p>\n
Inspirational captain Kalyn Ponga left the field following a head knock in the closing stages of the Warriors win but passed his HIA and will be free to take on the Panthers.\u00a0Dylan Lucas played the final 15 minutes at Eden Park in a successful return from his ankle injury and looks set to play an even bigger role in the preliminary final.<\/p>\n
NRL RESULTS, PRELIMINARY FINALS 2026<\/p>\n
Come back once the action begins for the latest scores and results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just four teams remain as the 2026 NRL Grand Final beckons. The first of two titanic preliminary finals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":899336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-899335","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\/899335","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=899335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}