{"id":18509,"date":"2026-09-15T06:00:32","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T18:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=18509"},"modified":"2026-09-15T06:00:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T18:00:32","slug":"nrl-finals-schedule-who-plays-who-in-week-2-and-how-the-warriors-can-make-the-grand-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=18509","title":{"rendered":"NRL finals schedule: Who plays who in week 2 and how the Warriors can make the Grand Final"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Warriors will need to take the hard path to the NRL Grand Final, having lost to the Dolphins in their qualifier at Go Media Mount Smart Stadium.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A victory in week one would have seen the Warriors take a week off and advance straight to the preliminiary finals in week three.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Instead they’ll take on the Newscastle Knights in a must-win elimination final on Sunday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Here’s who plays who next:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Week two: Semi-finals<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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The teams that lost their qualifying finals get another chance. They play the winners of the elimination finals in two sudden death games.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The two winners would then move on to the preliminary finals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    \n
  • Cronulla Sharks v Sydney Roosters, Saturday, 9.50pm at Allianz Stadium, Sydney<\/li>\n
  • Warriors v Newcastle Knights, Sunday 6.05pm at Eden Park, Auckland<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
    \n

    Warriors boss Cameron George is expecting Sunday’s game to sell out, in what he describes as an international for his side.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    “It’s us versus Australia. So the more people we get there, the better New Zealand will be.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    “There are 17 teams in this comp and we’re the only one from here so it’s us against them. This is our New Zealand grand final in the NRL and it’s pretty special.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    Warriors club members can buy tickets from midday Monday with general public tickets going on sale Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \n
    \n
    \n
    \"NZ<\/div>
    If the Warriors win against the Knights this weekend, they’ll go on to play the Panthers.<\/p>\n

    Andrew Cornaga\/www.photosport.nz<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    Week three: Preliminary final<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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    The four remaining teams play in the preliminary finals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    The Panthers and Dolphins have advanced straight to the prelims where they’ll meet the winners of the semi finals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    If the Warriors win against the Knights this weekend, they’ll go on to play the Panthers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    The winner of the Sharks v Roosters match this weekend will face the Dolphins.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \n

    The winners book their place in the Grand Final.<\/p>\n

    rnz<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Warriors will need to take the hard path to the NRL Grand Final, having lost to the Dolphins in their qualifier at Go Media Mount Smart Stadium. A victory in week one would have seen the Warriors take a week off and advance straight to the preliminiary finals in week three. Instead they’ll take […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-sports"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18509"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18511,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18509\/revisions\/18511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}