{"id":904544,"date":"2026-09-25T04:16:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T04:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/904544\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T04:16:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T04:16:17","slug":"nrl-preliminary-finals-2026-expert-tips-for-dolphins-vs-roosters-knights-vs-panthers-andrew-johns-and-brad-fittler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/904544\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL preliminary finals 2026, expert tips for Dolphins vs Roosters, Knights vs Panthers, Andrew Johns and Brad Fittler"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Brought to you by<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790309776_95_2f239d02715c68d1d282786a6a49db11108eda1069c62b0b86ad75431e959a8d.png\" class=\"sc-bORXZf hcHFnL\"\/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/person\/andrew-gary-johns-1mmm\" class=\"sc-iRgEWu hHENWX\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Andrew Johns<\/a> has warned the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/topic\/the-dolphins-26f4\" class=\"sc-iRgEWu hHENWX\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dolphins<\/a> to be prepared for a fired-up Naufahu Whyte after the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/sydney-roosters\" class=\"sc-iRgEWu hHENWX\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Roosters<\/a> prop was left \u201cscreaming\u201d at his coach last week.<\/p>\n<p>The 24-year-old has been the best middle forward in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\" class=\"sc-iRgEWu hHENWX\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NRL<\/a> this year, going past the likes of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/person\/payne-haas-267a\" class=\"sc-iRgEWu hHENWX\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Payne Haas<\/a> and James Fisher-Harris for the title.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/e38ee1014ed57f8f5af4f59985f1023eb7ddbaae.jpeg\"  width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"_0b53bae146db0b62 _7475dd3391ee1518\" style=\"--text-color:var(--color-text-secondary)\">Naufahu Whyte of the Roosters runs the ball.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>But as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/finals-cronulla-sharks-sydney-roosters-result-video-highlights-nicho-hynes-knockout-20260919-p60ytg.html\" class=\"sc-iRgEWu hHENWX\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">his Chooks pulled Cronulla\u2019s pants down in a 46-10 semi final rout <\/a>last weekend, the hulking Kiwi was left sitting on the bench by Trent Robinson.<\/p>\n<p>Whyte played just 25 minutes against the Sharks, with Robinson opting to put his best big man on ice ahead of Friday night\u2019s preliminary final clash with the Dolphins at Suncorp Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>Now the Brisbane-based side faces the prospect of a well-rested, and very frustrated Roosters prop tearing them to shreds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe wasn\u2019t happy last week, he came out publicly and said,\u201d Johns told Nine\u2019s NRL Tips.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe only played 25 minutes, he said he was on the bench screaming.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhich is good, you want him out there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While the Roosters beat the Sharks easily to reach the preliminary final, club legend Brad Fittler saw some worrying signs from the Tricolours.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe one place they looked a little bit vulnerable was when (Sharks hooker) Blayke Brailey went through the middle,\u201d Fittler said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery now and then the Roosters forwards get a little tired and tardy around there, so watch out for (Dolphins hooker) Jeremy Marshall-King.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Dolphins have the wood over the Roosters this season, and head into Friday\u2019s game with the added benefit of a week\u2019s rest.<\/p>\n<p>They upset the Warriors in Auckland a fortnight ago to earn that right, and now host a final at Suncorp Stadium for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>Even though the Roosters played last week, Johns pointed out Cronulla didn\u2019t exactly run the Chooks ragged.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019ve got to say last week against Cronulla, the last 50 minutes was like a club game,\u201d Johns said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut look at that game against Penrith, the intensity in that game when Roosters got beat, (last week was) nowhere near that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As for Sunday\u2019s game, Johns is the only expert tipster backing the Knights to upset the Panthers and reach a first grand final in 25 years.<\/p>\n<p>Scroll below for preliminary final tips by all Nine\u2019s expert tipsters!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brought to you by Andrew Johns has warned the Dolphins to be prepared for a fired-up Naufahu Whyte&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":904545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-904544","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\/904544","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=904544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/904545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=904544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=904544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=904544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}