The third edition of the NRL’s Las Vegas adventure features three of 2025’s also-rans striving to kick the new season off on a positive note – and another team looking to stamp their back-to-back top-four credentials early.
Coming off a wooden spoon, Newcastle makes its Vegas debut with a new gaffer – highly rated ex-Gold Coast coach Justin Holbrook. But he has a hefty job in front of him turning around by far the NRL’s worst attacking stats of 2025.
Recruit Dylan Brown and injury-prone talisman Kalyn Ponga take up roughly $2.5 million of the Knights’ salary…and largely dictate the fortunes of a team with questionable engine-room depth but with a decent amount of latent strike.
North Queensland was lumbered by the competition’s second-worst defence in 2025, slumping to 12th as the pressure ramps up on coach Todd Payten in his sixth season.
FORM: The Knights went 0-2 in the Pre-Season Challenge, losing 28-18 to the Dragons and 28-0 to the Bulldogs. The Cowboys won both matches – 34-30 against an unrecognisable Bulldogs and 66-24 over a second-string Penrith side.
INS AND OUTS: Ten-year recruit Dylan Brown will wear the No.7 on Knights debut, teaming with Fletcher Sharpe in the halves. Ex-Raider Trey Mooney starts up front, while hooker/half Sandon Smith could have a key role to play in the No.14 after arriving from the Roosters.
Tom Chester is in the Cowboys’ centres for the suspended Zac Laybutt. Jake Clifford has earned a halves spot, with Jaxon Purdue named in the centres. Reed Mahoney makes his club debut in the No.9 – flanked in the front-row by veterans Coen Hess and Jason Taumalolo.
KEY MATCH-UP: All eyes are on Dylan Brown in his first outing as Newcastle’s new linchpin – facing widespread scepticism about his ability to steer a team around the park.
Opposing No.7 Tom Dearden, the tenacious incumbent Queensland halfback, should benefit from the free rein afforded by Clifford’s kicking and organising skills.
HISTORY: The Cowboys are on a five-match winning streak against the Knights – though each of those matches were in Townsville. Their sole encounter in 2025 (Round 24) finished up 38-4 in the Cowboys’ favour with Scott Drinkwater scoring two tries and kicking seven-from-seven.
KEY STAT: The Knights have won six of their last eight Round 1 matches; the Cowboys have won only two of their last six season openers.
Newcastle averaged just 14.08 points per game in 2025, while the Cowboys managed 22.42.
VERDICT: These teams seem more likely to feature in the battle to avoid the wooden spoon than in the Top 8 race, which makes this showdown doubly important. The Knights’ offensive woes showed few signs of improvement during the trials and loom as a vital factor here.
SGM: EITHER TEAM BY UNDER 10.5 POINTS / UNDER 41.5 TOTAL POINTS / MURRAY TAULAGI ANYTIME TRYSCORER / FLETCHER SHARPE ANYTIME TRYSCORER
Canterbury has built impressively during Cameron Ciraldo’s three seasons at the helm, returning to the finals after an eight-year absence in 2024 and reaching the top four for the first time in 13 years last season.
There’s some line-up and combination wrinkles to iron out, but the Bulldogs are a team on the rise despite a disappointing late fadeout in 2025.
The Dragons, unflattering ladder positions and win ratios notwithstanding, have shown some improvement and backbone (albeit not consistently enough) in two years under Shane Flanagan. But big roster holes – particularly in the halves department – threaten to stall this team’s progress.
FORM: Saints fans got excited after a 28-18 Pre-Season Challenge win over the Knights – with teenage half Kade Reed starring – but were brought back to earth by a Charity Shield loss to a vastly under-strength Souths side.
A no-name Bulldogs side was edged 34-30 by the Cowboys, before a near full-strength line-up shut out the Knights 28-0.
INS AND OUTS: Matt Burton (hamstring) has been named at five-eighth for the Bulldogs, while wing duo Marcelo Montoya and Jacob Kiraz will line up after missing the pre-season fixtures. Star prop recruit Leo Thompson is injured; bench half Sean O’Sullivan is the only new face named in the top 19.
Ex-Warriors lower-grader Setu Tu will debut on the wing for the Dragons at the age of 27, ousting the likes of Mat Feagai and Tyrell Sloan. Former Shark Daniel Atkinson and Kyle Flanagan team up in the halves with Lykhan King-Tongia in the No.18 spot.
KEY MATCH-UP: Two young halfbacks arguably best suited to five-eighth will be in the Las Vegas spotlight, with the ultra-talented but maligned Lachlan Galvin and Dragons recruit Daniel Atkinson aiming to provide their respective sides with direction as well as spark.
HISTORY: Canterbury has won its last five against St George Illawarra, though last season’s two clashes were close-fought – 28-20 in Round 1 at Kogarah and 20-18 in Round 20 at Accor Stadium. Going back further, the Bulldogs have won 19 of the teams’ last 26 encounters.
KEY STAT: The Bulldogs are chasing consecutive Round 1 wins for the first time since 2011-12. The Dragons are vying for their fourth season-opening victory in five years.
VERDICT: The heavyweight Bulldogs have been installed as $1.38 favourites – and anything like their 2025 early-season form should be too good for the Dragons, whose Clint Gutherson-typified grit can’t always compensate for their talent deficit.
SGM: BULLDOGS BY 6-10 POINTS / OVER 38.5 TOTAL POINTS / VILIAME KIKAU ANYTIME TRYSCORER / SETU TU ANYTIME TRYSCORER @ $71.22