GET READY FOR THE PRELIMINARY FINALS - All You Need to Know Before Kick-off

It’s time for the Preliminary Finals with the BettingTop10 team! Last week we said goodbye to the Cronulla Sharks, who were disgraced by the Sydney Roosters, and the New Zealand Warriors, who didn’t have anything to go their way against the Newcastle Knights. The Dolphins and Penrith Panthers won in Week 1 and have been patiently waiting for this week.

Never has there been so much attention on a player’s foot! Nathan Cleary’s foot injury is by far the biggest talking point surrounding the Premiership favourites (according to current NRL betting odds). 

In Finals Week 1, he avoided suspension after his sin-binning, but after that was cleared up, all the attention went to his foot. This foot has been making headlines for the last two weeks, and people can’t stop talking about it!

Cleary has been dealing with a stress-related bone injury in his foot. However, all reports suggest he’ll be taking the field against the Knights on Sunday night. Will he be at full strength? I doubt it. But even a semi-fit Cleary is good enough to get the job done.

We also can’t forget about Isaah Yeo, who continues to carry a pec issue. He looked strong against the Roosters a couple of weeks ago, and should certainly benefit from the week off. On top of this, we could also see Paul Alamoti and Izack Tago available for selection.

The Dolphins have never played finals footy before, but you wouldn’t know it! Like the Panthers, they’ve had their feet up for a while after winning their game against the Warriors in Week 1 of the finals.

As is always the case when we see a team find some long-term success, other clubs are starting to sniff around to see if they can pick up some stars for themselves. A lot of the young Dolphins stars are starting to become very appealing to rival teams.

This could cause some salary-cap issues down the line as the Dolphins may not be able to pay what all their stars want, while other teams can. While the team has bigger fish to fry right now, this will certainly become a major issue very soon.

One player, in particular, who’s been on fire is the Dolphins co-captain Isaiya Katoa. A lot of the Dolphins' successes this season can be traced back to the 22-year-old. Can the young star continue to live up to the hype and guide his team in the biggest game of his career?

The Roosters may have suffered a harsh loss to the Panthers in Week 1 of the finals, but they didn’t let that impact them last time out, completely dismantling the Sharks, 46-10. Those 46 points meant it was the Roosters’ highest-ever score in a finals match!

That game was at home, and now the Roosters will have to travel up to Suncorp Stadium to take on the Dolphins. The Roosters will also have to do something they haven’t done so far this season, which is beat the Dolphins (they’ve lost 12-26 and 10-48).

In some remarkable news, we may see Sam Walker return from his ankle injury. Yes, that’s right. Just a couple of weeks ago, Walker went under the knife for this injury, and now he could be back in the field. Talk about a quick turnaround! 

Another Chook who made his return after a foot injury was Angus Crichton. Crichton returned last time out after 12 weeks on the sidelines. It was a successful return, and he’ll be looking to pack a punch to help his team to another Grand Final.

It was just last season that the Knights were handed the unwanted wooden spoon. Now? They are into the Preliminary Final for the first time since 2013! Not even Knights fans could have expected this. They are a team that continues to prove the doubters wrong.

This is mostly due to the excellent form of captain Kalyn Ponga. And in some good news, Ponga has passed his HIA from the Warriors clash and is expected to play and hopefully make a similar level of impact this time out. 

Dylan Lucas also made a successful return last time out after suffering a serious ankle injury. The forward was injured in Round 21 against the Roosters and was expected to miss the rest of the season.

With less than 60 days between drinks for Lucas, it means he has one of the fastest returns from a serious ankle dislocation/ fracture in NRL history. This is what the 2026 Knights have been about: resilience. We’ve seen it all year, and they’ve proven just how capable they are.