{"id":937346,"date":"2026-10-22T21:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T21:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/937346\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T21:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T21:28:10","slug":"nrl-fixture-release-date-perth-bears-first-opponent-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/937346\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL fixture release date, Perth Bears first opponent revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NRL<\/a> fixture for 2027 is set to be revealed on November 16, the day after the Rugby League<\/a> World Cup finishes.<\/p>\n

The NRL<\/a> normally aim for a mid-November timeline, although this year they are blocked from doing it any earlier by the fanfare of the World Cup.<\/p>\n

It was speculated they may wait a week or so for clear air, but News Corp are reporting the draw, which is well underway in terms of being built, will be revealed the day after the final, to be held at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium.<\/p>\n

The season’s opening games – between the Parramatta Eels<\/a> and Gold Coast Titans<\/a>, and Melbourne Storm<\/a> and Wests Tigers<\/a>, are already locked in for Las Vegas on Sunday, February 28 (Australian time), with the remainder of the teams to kick-off the following weekend.<\/p>\n

It is now also reported by the publication that the Perth Bears<\/a> will start life as an NRL<\/a> club in the Western Australian capital against the South Sydney Rabbitohs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Bears first floated the idea of playing against the Rabbitohs in their first game a number of months ago, and it appears the NRL<\/a> agree with their proposal.<\/p>\n

Perth’s most natural rival is likely to be the Manly Sea Eagles<\/a> given the historical clash of the North Sydney Bears and Manly Sea Eagles<\/a>, but ultimately, it’s the Rabbitohs as a big club they want to open life against.<\/p>\n

It’s also believed that there is a good chance prime minister Anthony Albanese would attend the match, which is likely to be played on a Sunday afternoon – the same time slot that the Dolphins<\/a> opened their NRL<\/a> existence in.<\/p>\n

Exactly how the NRL<\/a> schedule the ninth game each week remains to be seen, with Sunday evening seen as the likely prefered timeslot – and one that will suit the Perth market.<\/p>\n

It’s believed the NRL<\/a> could float a mixed schedule throughout the course of the year though, particularly in the first six weeks when a 2pm Sunday game isn’t used owing to the heat remaining on the eastern seaboard of Australia<\/a> as summer fades.<\/p>\n

The actual structure of the season is also yet to be confirmed, although it’s believed teams will retain three byes across 27 rounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NRL fixture for 2027 is set to be revealed on November 16, the day after the Rugby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":937347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-937346","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\/937346","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=937346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/937347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=937346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=937346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=937346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}