NRL fixes main fan frustration in season draw
Scott Bailey |
The NRL has eradicated one of the pet peeves of fans from its season schedule, with no two teams to play each other twice in a five-week period in 2026.
Head office will announce the full 2026 draw at 11am on Friday morning, with Canterbury and St George Illawarra to kick off in Las Vegas on February 27.
Pre-season matches will begin from February 7, while All-Stars will return to New Zealand playing in Hamilton on February 15.
It can also be revealed that Dylan Brown will have to wait until round 13 to face Parramatta, with his new club Newcastle to host the Eels on May 30.
By that point the success of Brown’s $13 million 10-year deal will already have likely been a major talking point of the first half of the regular season.
But what will please most fans will be the removal of teams playing each other twice in short succession.
In the 2025 season alone there were seven instances of clubs playing each other just four weeks after a previous match up.
There were also eight other times where teams faced off five weeks after an initial clash, making for a total of 15 short-term return match ups.
The short turnarounds raised concerns over fairness, given teams could face rivals twice while they were missing a star player through injury.
But in 2026 there will be none at all, with the shortest gap between return bouts being six weeks.
Even then that will only occur five times in the schedule, with most of those coming late in the season, the change a significant tick of approval for the NRL’s new draw process, which relies heavily on AI.
Meanwhile the NRL will have a greater emphasis on games in regional venues during the pre-season, after traditionally sticking to major centres in recent years.
North Queensland will play Penrith in Mackay on February 13 in the pre-season challenge, while South Sydney and Manly will face off in Mudgee on February 22.
Napier and Hamilton will host rugby league on back-to-back days in New Zealand, with the Warriors taking on Manly on Saturday February 14 before All Stars on the Sunday.
And Cronulla will take a pre-season match to Henson Park when they host Parramatta there on February 15, with Newtown still acting as a feeder club for the Sharks.
AAP
