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.

Teams

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

Pre-season

The 2018 pre-season as usual saw a number of trials. In addition it saw British clubs Leeds Rhinos, Hull F.C., and Wigan Warriors conduct pre-season tours to Australia. Leeds's tour was ahead of their the 2018 World Club Challenge clash Melbourne Storm (won by Melbourne 38–4), while Hull's and Wigan's was ahead of them hosting a Super League game at Wollongong Showground.

Trail results

italics indicates a non-NRL club

• 7 February: Newcastle Knights 26-22 Melbourne Storm
• 10 February: Brisbane Broncos 16-6 Central Queensland Capras
• 17 February: New Zealand Warriors 24-14 Melbourne Storm
• 17 February: St George Illawarra Dragons 24-18 Hull F.C.
• 17 February: Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs 16-12 Canberra Raiders
• 17 February: Penrith Panthers 30-18 Sydney Roosters
• 17 February: Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks 30-14 Manly Warringah Sea Eagles
• 17 February: South Sydney Rabbitohs 18-8 Wigan Warriors
• 17 February: Brisbane Broncos 38-10 Gold Coast Titans
• 17 February: Wests Tigers 30-16 North Queensland Cowboys
• 23 February: North Queensland Cowboys 16-14 Melbourne Storm
• 24 February: Brisbane Broncos 26-12 PNG Hunters
• 24 February: New Zealand Warriors 20-14 Gold Coast Titans
• 24 February: Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs 24-10 Penrith Panthers
• 24 February: Sydney Roosters 28-26 Manly Warringah Sea Eagles
• 24 February: Parramatta Eels 26-6 Newcastle Knights
• 24 February: Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks 24-12 Wests Tigers
• 24 February: South Sydney Rabbitohs 22-18 St George Illawarra Dragons

Regular season

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.

<span style="font-size:85%">Bold&nbsp;– Opposition's Home game</span><br> <span style="font-size:85%">X&nbsp;– Bye</span><br> <span style="font-size:85%">*&nbsp;– Golden point game</span><br> <span style="font-size:85%">Opponent for round listed above margin</span>

Ladder

Ladder progression

• 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.

Finals series

† Match decided in extra time.

Chart

Grand final

Player statistics and records

• 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.

Top 5 point scorers

Top 5 try scorers

Top 5 goal scorers

Top 5 tacklers

2018 Transfers

Players

Source:

Coaches

References