2018 NRL Touch Premiership season

The 2018 NRL Touch Premiership season is the inaugural season of the NRL Touch Premiership in Australia, and coincided with matches in the 2018 NRL season. The premiership was launched in partnership with Touch Football Australia and the National Rugby League, and was made up of a three round regular season split into two conferences - Queensland and New South Wales - with the first-placed teams in both conferences progressing to the grand final.

2018 NRL Touch Premiership season
LeagueNRL Touch Premiership
Teams6

Teams

The premiership included six teams in its inaugural season, extracted from the 2018 Elite 8 Series. Each team was aligned to a current NRL club, and was made up of players selected by Queensland Touch Football and NSW Touch Football based on their performances at the 2018 National Touch League.[1]

Colours Team NRL-Aligned Club Season Home ground Men's Women's
Head Coach Assistant Coach Manager Captain(s) Coach Assistant Coach Manager Captain(s)
QLD Cowboys North Queensland Cowboys 1st season 1300SMILES Stadium Phil Gyemore Tim Villalba Justin Mitchell Daniel Withers Swain Rovelli Mitch Smith Anita Hagarty Rylie Seamark
QLD Titans Gold Coast Titans 1st season Cbus Super Stadium Chris Loth Tristan Mana Brendan Jones Peter Norman Renee Murphy Leasha Thouard Brenda Rackemann Marikki Watego, Ashleigh Kearney
QLD Broncos Brisbane Broncos 1st season Suncorp Stadium Jason Boyd John Beesley Tyrone Bruce Lucas Feldman Craig Morrow Michael Baartz
Parramatta Eels Parramatta Eels 1st season ANZ Stadium Mark Boland Jason Martin Ricky Hetherington Barry Gibson Anthony Dudeck Christian Browne
Newcastle Knights Newcastle Knights 1st season McDonald Jones Stadium Joel Willoughby Karley Banks Andrew Wise Michael Moussa Brooke Playford Sheralee Langbridge
Wests Tigers Wests Tigers 1st season ANZ Stadium Tony Trad Dave Nolan Robert Barakat Paul Sfeir Matt Scranage Kim Solman

Regular season

The regular season was broken into two conferences, consisting of three teams each - Cowboys, Titans, and Broncos in the Queensland conference and Eels, Knights, and Tigers in the NSW conference.[2]

Round 1
Conference Home Away Venue Date Men's Women's
Time Score Referees Time Score Referees
NSW Parramatta Eels Wests Tigers ANZ Stadium Friday, 18 May 3:55 pm 4-7 Kim Skelly*

Tony Calabria*

Robert Bowen*

 4:40 pm 4-3 Kim Skelly

Tony Calabria

Luke Saldern*

QLD QLD Cowboys QLD Titans 1300SMILES Stadium Saturday, 19 May 3:05 pm 7-4 Luke McKenzie*

Brett Freshwater*

Michael Littlefield*

 3:50 pm 5-8 Luke McKenzie

Brett Freshwater

Denise Weier*

Round 2
Conference Home Away Venue Date Men's Women's
Time Score Referees Time Score Referees
NSW Newcastle Knights Parramatta Eels McDonald Jones Stadium Saturday, 30 June 5-4 David Baggio, Tony Calabria, Kim Skelly 4-3 Kim Skelly, Rob Bowen, Luke Saldern
QLD QLD Broncos QLD Cowboys Suncorp Stadium Saturday, 30 June 7-2 Anthony Smith, Brad Smith, Luke McKenzie 4-3 Anthony Smith, Brad Smith, Amanda Sheeky

Round 3
Conference Home Away Venue Date Men's Women's
Time Score Referees Time Score Referees
QLD QLD Titans QLD Broncos Cbus Super Stadium Sunday, 15 July 2-0 7-8
NSW Wests Tigers Newcastle Knights ANZ Stadium Saturday, 21 July 4-3 9-5

(*) Denotes referee debut

Grand final

The grand final is played between the first-placed team in the Queensland conference, and the first-placed team in the New South Wales conference.[3]

QLD Conference Team Score NSW Conference Team Venue Date Time Referees
Women's QLD Broncos 2-4 Wests Tigers Cbus Super Stadium Saturday, 29 July noon Tony Calabria

Brett Freshwater

Amanda Sheeky

Men's QLD Broncos 6-5 Wests Tigers 12:45 pm David Baggio

Kim Skelly

Luke McKenzie

References
  1. "NRL Touch Premiership team lists – Touch Football Australia". touchfootball.com.au. Retrieved 2018-05-21.
  2. "NRL Touch Premiership 2018 Draw – Touch Football Australia". touchfootball.com.au. Retrieved 2018-05-21.
  3. "NRL announces historic Touch football premiership competition". National Rugby League. 2018-04-18. Retrieved 2018-05-21.
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