Who are the top contenders for the Pre-season Challenge?
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With most of the leading teams in the Pre-season Challenge facing off this week, the second and final round of the inaugural competition promises to be an exciting one when it kicks off on Friday evening.
Just four of the 18 clubs who took the field in Week 1 failed to earn a point under the Pre-season Challenge's unique scoring system, while the Roosters and Sea Eagles were the only teams who claimed the maximum 15 points on offer, by winning and claiming bonus points by making five or more line breaks, scoring five or more tries and offloading at least 10 times.
With those two sides playing each other on Friday night, the winner will put themselves in a great position to claim the $100,000 payday as Pre-season Challenge winners, even if they fail to pick up all three bonus points, while the loser will fall out of contention and a draw will likely end the hopes of both.
The Sea Eagles will take confidence from having stopped the Rabbitohs from earning bonus points for line breaks and offloads in their 30-28 win last week, while the Roosters allowed the Storm to earn bonus points in both those categories, but held them to four tries in a 32-24 victory.
The chasing group is a congested one, with four sides sitting just one point back and the Panthers only two points adrift in seventh.
Tuaimalo Vaega carries them to the line
If current ladder standings are anything to go by, the Warriors (3rd) are the next best-placed side and are the only team in the top seven who don't have to play another side from the top half of the ladder in Week 2, instead facing the 12th-ranked Storm.
It looks a potentially tougher road for the rest of the top seven, with the 4th-ranked Bulldogs playing the Sharks (5th) and 6th playing 7th when St Helens and Penrith meet in the World Club Challenge, which will be played under the same points-scoring system as all the other Pre-season Challenge matches.
From that group, Penrith, St Helens and the Bulldogs all prevented their opponents from earning a single bonus point last week, while Cronulla gave up only one by allowing the Knights to make five line breaks in the Sharks' 28-16 win.
Alamoti finishes some smart Dogs play near the line
The inclusion this week of the NRL's top offloader from last year, Tevita Pangai Junior, and new recruit Viliame Kikau, who between them racked up 95 offloads in 2022, will have the Bulldogs confident they can earn a bonus point in that category against the Sharks, after easily earning them in the line break and try categories last week.
In the event of what is shapes as a likely scenario, in which multiple teams are tied on points at the top of the ladder at the end of this weekend, the Pre-season Challenge will be decided via a countback procedure, starting with points differential.
