2018 NRL season

The 2018 NRL season was the 111th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 21st season run by the National Rugby League. The main competition, known as the 2018 Telstra Premiership due to sponsorship from Telstra, featured 16 teams playing 25 weekly rounds of matches from March until September, resulting in the top eight teams playing a series of finals matches to determine which two teams reached the 2018 NRL Grand Final.

The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 12th consecutive year.

The 2018 pre-season featured the 2018 World Club Challenge match with the NRL premiers Melbourne Storm defeating the Super League champions Leeds Rhinos.

With the City vs. Country representative game having been scrapped, the NRL scheduled 6 games to take place in regional areas of New South Wales and Queensland as a replacement: Tamworth, Bathurst & Mudgee, and Toowoomba, Gladstone & Cairns.

The overall structure of the season's draw was also revised. The second game of the 2018 State of Origin series was played as a stand-alone fixture on a Sunday to avoid conflict with the regular season. Due to this the competition was shortened to 25 rounds and each team got 1 bye as opposed to 2 in previous years.

Bold – Opposition's Home game
X – Bye
* – Golden point game
Opponent for round listed above margin

• Numbers highlighted in green indicate that the team finished the round inside the top 8.
• Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the team finished first on the ladder in that round.
• Numbers highlighted in red indicates the team finished last place on the ladder in that round.
• Underlined numbers indicate that the team had a bye during that round.

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
			Date and Time (Local)	Venue	Referees	Crowd
QUALIFYING & ELIMINATION FINALS
Melbourne Storm	29 – 28	South Sydney Rabbitohs	7 September 2018, 7:50 pm	AAMI Park	Ashley Klein Adam Gee	17,306
Penrith Panthers	27 – 12	New Zealand Warriors	8 September 2018, 5:40 pm	ANZ Stadium	Matt Cecchin Henry Perenara	17,168
Sydney Roosters	21 – 12	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks	8 September 2018, 7:50 pm	Allianz Stadium	Gerard Sutton Ben Cummins	24,588
Brisbane Broncos	18 – 48	St. George Illawarra Dragons	9 September 2018, 4:10 pm	Suncorp Stadium	Grant Atkins Chris Sutton	47,296
SEMI FINALS
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks	21 – 20	Penrith Panthers	14 September 2018, 7:50 pm	Allianz Stadium	Ashley Klein Adam Gee	19,211
South Sydney Rabbitohs	13 – 12	St. George Illawarra Dragons	15 September 2018, 7:50 pm	ANZ Stadium	Gerard Sutton Ben Cummins	48,188
PRELIMINARY FINALS
Melbourne Storm	22 – 6	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks	21 September 2018, 7:55 pm	AAMI Park	Gerard Sutton Ben Cummins	26,621
Sydney Roosters	12 – 4	South Sydney Rabbitohs	22 September 2018, 7:50 pm	Allianz Stadium	Ashley Klein Adam Gee	44,380

† Match decided in extra time.

	Qualifying and elimination finals					Semi-finals						Preliminary finals					Grand final
	8 Sept, Allianz Stadium
	1	Sydney	21
	4	Cronulla-Sutherland	12			14 Sept, Allianz Stadium
						Cronulla-Sutherland		21
	8 Sept, ANZ Stadium					Penrith		20				22 Sept, Allianz Stadium
	5	Penrith	27									Sydney		12
	8	New Zealand	12									South Sydney		4			30 Sept, ANZ Stadium
																	Sydney		21
	9 Sept, Suncorp Stadium											21 Sept, AAMI Park					Melbourne		6
	6	Brisbane	18									Melbourne		22
	7	St. George Illawarra	48			15 Sept, ANZ Stadium						Cronulla-Sutherland		6
						South Sydney		13
	7 Sept, AAMI Park					St. George Illawarra		12
	2	Melbourne	29
	3	South Sydney	28

Sunday, 30 September 7:35pm (AEST)

Sydney Roosters	21 – 6	Melbourne Storm
Tries: Daniel Tupou (8') 1 Latrell Mitchell (15') 1 Joseph Manu (37') 1 Goals: Latrell Mitchell 4/6 (4' pen, 16', 31' pen, 79' pen) Field Goals: Luke Keary (69') 1	1st: 18 - 0 2nd: 3 - 6	Tries: Josh Addo-Carr (63') 1 Goals: Cameron Smith 1/1 (64') Sin Bin: Cameron Munster 2 (30', 78')

ANZ Stadium Attendance: 82,688 Clive Churchill Medal: Luke Keary Referee: Gerard Sutton, Ashley Klein

• Jamayne Isaako broke the record for the most points scored in a rookie season with 239, which was set by Mick Cronin in 1977 who scored 225 points.
• Gavin Cooper became the first forward in the 111 year history of the NRL to score a try in nine consecutive games, beating the previous record of eight set by Frank Burge in 1918.
• Cameron Smith became the first hooker in NRL history to score 200 points in a season.

The following statistics are as of the conclusion of Round 25.

Source: