Where and when your team will play in week one of the NRL finals

Cronulla have been booted out of the Shire, South Sydney will host a final at their Moore Park “home”, while the New Zealand Warriors will play their qualifying final at Go Media Stadium before a likely move to Eden Park for the remainder of the play-offs.

The Rabbitohs and Newcastle will kick-start this year’s NRL finals series at the 42,000-capacity Allianz Stadium – not Accor Stadium (capacity 80,000) – because the Knights would have struggled to justify a move to the much bigger venue.

The Warriors will host the Dolphins on Saturday afternoon at Go Media Stadium, followed by the Sharks against the Cowboys at Allianz Stadium.

Sunday afternoon will feature a classic one-versus-four all-Sydney blockbuster between minor premiers Penrith and the Sydney Roosters.

The two powerhouses clashed at the same venue just three weeks ago, when the Roosters triumphed 12-6 in front of 16,768 supporters.

The big talking point, however, will be the decision to move the Sharks out of Ocean Protect Stadium, even though the NRL resisted the temptation to move the Warriors from their 26,000-seat venue to Eden Park, which can accommodate double that number.

The Sharks have been allowed to host finals in week one in recent seasons, including last year when 12,842 people watched them defeat the Roosters in an elimination final, in 2023 when 12,570 fans saw them lose an elimination final to the Roosters, while 12,447 watched them lose a golden-point epic against the Cowboys in 2022.

“We want to look after all the Cronulla supporters – we don’t want any of them to miss out – and this way none of them will miss out,” ARL Commission executive chairman Peter V’landys said.

“We’ll make sure we put on additional transport so they can make a real event of it.”

Cronulla chief executive Dino Mezzatesta was naturally disappointed with having to leave the Shire, especially given other clubs had been allowed to play at small home venues. The Sharks stressed to the NRL on the weekend that the Cowboys were unlikely to have many fans travel to Sydney to boost the attendance.

The Sharks and Cowboys drew less than 20,000 for a semi-final at Allianz in 2024.

“If you earn the right to play at home, you should be able to play at home,” Mezzatesta said. “Other teams have not been asked to move to bigger venues, so there’s been no parity in that sense.

“At the same time, if we have to move, we’ll work with the NRL to make sure we get 20,000 to 25,000 supporters to Allianz.

“We need more than 15,000 supporters because that’s the whole point of moving away. We need to turn that place black, white and blue.”

Warriors chief executive Cameron George said he was glad his club was granted their week-one wish, and also open to a move to Eden Park in week two or three of the finals.

“We’re thankful the NRL listened to us,” he said. “We spoke several times during the week, and everyone appreciates the fact our stadium is extremely capable of hosting finals matches.

“The reality is Penrith get to remain at CommBank [and avoid a move to a bigger stadium], and it’s great we get to stay put in the first week.”

As for moving to Eden Park, George said: “I’ve put a strong case forward about remaining at Go Media Stadium, but we’re always willing and able to sit down with the NRL and talk about further options and what they look like if and when need be.”

V’landys said: “Eden Park is 100 per cent on the map.”

South Sydney chief Blake Solly said it made sense to play at the Moore Park venue, their spiritual heartland where they will play four regular-season games in 2027, and five in 2028. Chairman Nicholas Pappas confirmed last week the club had already held discussions with Venues NSW about having the South Sydney emblem erected on the side of the stadium next to Sydney FC, the Waratahs and Sydney Roosters.

“We showed on Friday night Moore Park is very much a home ground for the Rabbitohs,” Solly said.

“We’ve had three iconic moments in that stadium already: there was the final against the Roosters in 2022, Alex Johnston’s record-breaking try [in round two] and Friday’s game for Jai Arrow.

“We look forward to creating more iconic moments into the future.”