NRL.com will broadcast a special edition of Inside the NRL after the final game of the round this afternoon with all the official kick-off times, match-ups and latest information about week one of the Telstra Premiership finals series.
Join host Katie Brown, former premiership-winning Dragons five-eighth Jamie Soward and NRL.com chief reporter Michael Chammas from 7pm (AEST) on Sunday as they break down the first-round match-ups for what promises to be an exciting start to the playoffs.
Will the Roosters go all the way again to become the first team to defend their title since the 1993 Brisbane Broncos? Can the Storm go one better than last year after losing to the Roosters in the grand final?
Or will the Rabbitohs rise again or the Raiders continue their fairytale run?
Or will the Eels or depleted Sea Eagles, Broncos, Sharks or even Tigers make a dramatic late-season surge to the big dance?
Canberra’s upset loss to the Warriors on Saturday means 1908 originals South Sydney and the Sydney Roosters will go head to head in their qualifying final. Dates and venues will not be officially announced until Sunday afternoon.
The other qualifying final pits the minor premiers, the Storm, against the Raiders in Melbourne.
Fifth-placed Parramatta will take on Brisbane unless Sunday’s Wests Tigers v Cronulla game ends in a draw, which would lift both those teams above the Broncos into the final eight and send Brisbane out of the post-season equation.
Sixth-placed Manly will face the winner of the Leichhardt showdown.
If the Tigers-Sharks game ends in a draw, Manly would play the Sharks as they have a better for-and-against while the Eels would play the Tigers, who would finish eighth under that unlikely scenario.
