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NRL finals schedule: Who plays who in week 2 and how the Warriors can make the Grand Final

The Warriors now need to take the hard path to the Grand Final, starting with a sudden-death elimination final at Eden Park].
NRL finals schedule: Who plays who in week 2 and how the Warriors can make the Grand Final

The Warriors will need to take the hard path to the NRL Grand Final, having lost to the Dolphins in their qualifier at Go Media Mount Smart Stadium.

A victory in week one would have seen the Warriors take a week off and advance straight to the preliminiary finals in week three.

Instead they'll take on the Newscastle Knights in a must-win elimination final on Sunday.

Here's who plays who next:

The teams that lost their qualifying finals get another chance. They play the winners of the elimination finals in two sudden death games.

The two winners would then move on to the preliminary finals.

Warriors boss Cameron George is expecting Sunday's game to sell out, in what he describes as an international for his side.

"It's us versus Australia. So the more people we get there, the better New Zealand will be.

"There are 17 teams in this comp and we're the only one from here so it's us against them. This is our New Zealand grand final in the NRL and it's pretty special."

Warriors club members can buy tickets from midday Monday with general public tickets going on sale Tuesday.

If the Warriors win against the Knights this weekend, they'll go on to play the Panthers.

Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz

The four remaining teams play in the preliminary finals.

The Panthers and Dolphins have advanced straight to the prelims where they'll meet the winners of the semi finals.

If the Warriors win against the Knights this weekend, they'll go on to play the Panthers at Sydney's Accor Stadium at 6.05pm NZT, Sunday 27 September.

The winner of the Sharks v Roosters match this weekend will face the Dolphins at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium on Friday 25 September..

The winners book their place in the Grand Final.

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It was published on September 14, 2026 and last updated on October 9, 2026. The time of the story is shown in your own time zone on the page.

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