NRL NRL 2026 - Round 11 (Magic Round)

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Friday 15th May
Cronulla-Sutherland vs Canterbury-Bankstown (Suncorp Stadium - 18:00)
South Sydney vs Dolphins (Suncorp Stadium- 20:00)

Saturday 16th May
Wests Tigers vs Manly (Suncorp Stadium - 15:00)
Sydney Roosters vs North Queensland (Suncorp Stadium - 17:30)
Parramatta vs Melbourne (Suncorp Stadium - 19:35)

Sunday 17th May
Gold Coast vs Newcastle (Suncorp Stadium - 14:00)
New Zealand vs Brisbane (Suncorp Stadium- 16:05)
Penrith vs St.George-Illawarra (Suncorp Stadium- 19:50)

Bye: Canberra

https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/pickem/picks/2026-nrl-tipping.224/?week_id=497

 

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NRL Team Lists: Magic Round

Official team lists, updates and injury news for Round 11 of the 2026 NRL Telstra Premiership.

www.nrl.com

 

[Jatz]

Great chance for the Knights to get another 2 points and really build into the season nicely.

 

[Aucklander]

Game of the round. Be nice to solidify a top 2 place.

 

[Aucklander]

Panthers news conference at 2 pm.

 

[Jatz]

Panthers news conference at 2 pm.

Suspect Ivan is being extended.

 

[Jatz]

Unusually my Panthers connection is being very tight lipped on this one.

 

[royboy2]

Suspect Ivan is being extended.

Leaving after 27 is what the media posts are running with

 

[Jatz]

Yep, looks like I assumed wrong there.

I don't blame him really, nothing left to achieve at Penrith.

 

[laptop_MR]

Pretty sure ivan has wanted to retire from coaching for a while and transition into an upstairs role (like general manager of football), and Peter Wallace (his assistant) is very highly spoken of by the club who could be poached by another club anytime

Could be at Penrith or at another club. Ivan bought a new place around there 18 months ago. Might be something similar to how Longmire is still at the swans

 

[Jatz]

Pretty sure ivan has wanted to retire from coaching for a while and transition into an upstairs role (like general manager of football), and Peter Wallace (his assistant) is very highly spoken of by the club who could be poached by another club anytime

Could be at Penrith or at another club. Ivan bought a new place around there 18 months ago. Might be something similar to how Longmire is still at the swans

Director of coaching was what was mooted.

He did also come out this season and say that he was getting more and more interest in coaching a rep team as well.

 

[Sonny Hayes]

Ivan leaving is genuinely close to the saddest sporting news I can remember. None of this happens without him. I can’t blame him at all for moving on to other opportunities but the selfish side of me is so sad he doesn’t want to just go on for 20+ like Bellyache

 

[Jatz]

Will be interesting with Wallace taking the reins.

He's been in that system forever, absolutely lovely guy.

 

[PhatBoy]

Will be interesting with Wallace taking the reins.

He's been in that system forever, absolutely lovely guy.

What an incredible tenure. Has done things his way - no disrespect to other long tenured coaches like Bennett, Bellamy, Sheedy, Scott etc but this just makes me like him more. Has done everything he can to turn this side from a bit of a league backwater into an utter sporting juggernaut and one that I actually go out of my way to tune into every single week - there are a lot of dickheads (the usual types who just find a way to get sick of any team that wins a lot and wants to say they cheat etc) who complain about how they play. This isn’t Smith era Melbourne who have made the game ugly. They haven’t turned every game into a slow, laborious slogfest or anything like that.

They are methodical, but precise and know how and when to pull the trigger and their ability to know exactly when to do exactly what, is something I’ve never seen in Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, the Roosters, Manly, or any of the great sides I’ve been able to watch in my lifetime. And he’s done it without ever having to sign any particularly big names and generally losing them on a regular basis.

I’ve been lucky enough to speak to him a few times through work and just randomly bumping into him when they come to Bathurst each year. The guy is class and has time for everyone.

He took time out to speak to my son and his mates last year and actually asked them questions and listened to what they had to say.

I cannot speak highly enough of the bloke.

 

[PhatBoy]

Who knows it may have the opposite effect but boy, I feel sorry for the Dragons this week

 

[sosos]

Loved the magic round promo video..the first time. Absolutely spamming it since. Enough!

 

[sosos]

What an incredible tenure. Has done things his way - no disrespect to other long tenured coaches like Bennett, Bellamy, Sheedy, Scott etc but this just makes me like him more. Has done everything he can to turn this side from a bit of a league backwater into an utter sporting juggernaut and one that I actually go out of my way to tune into every single week - there are a lot of dickheads (the usual types who just find a way to get sick of any team that wins a lot and wants to say they cheat etc) who complain about how they play. This isn’t Smith era Melbourne who have made the game ugly. They haven’t turned every game into a slow, laborious slogfest or anything like that.

They are methodical, but precise and know how and when to pull the trigger and their ability to know exactly when to do exactly what, is something I’ve never seen in Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, the Roosters, Manly, or any of the great sides I’ve been able to watch in my lifetime. And he’s done it without ever having to sign any particularly big names and generally losing them on a regular basis.

I’ve been lucky enough to speak to him a few times through work and just randomly bumping into him when they come to Bathurst each year. The guy is class and has time for everyone.

He took time out to speak to my son and his mates last year and actually asked them questions and listened to what they had to say.

I cannot speak highly enough of the bloke.

Is that the old Northern states jealousy coming out?

Rugby League is a simple game. The best at executing the basics, with a sprinkling of magic, always thrive.

Storm did this brilliantly. Penrith have been masterful more recently.

Ugly it ain't.

 

[PhatBoy]

Is that the old Northern states jealousy coming out?

Rugby League is a simple game. The best at executing the basics, with a sprinkling of magic, always thrive.

Storm did this brilliantly. Penrith have been masterful more recently.

Ugly it ain't.

lol. I’m a NsWelshman who’s supported Qld his whole life. Without Melbourne Qld would have been f**ked for the last 20 years. I have no allegiance to any state when it comes to club football.

I actually don’t mind Melbourne and some aspects of their game when they were at their absolute peak, I really liked. No true rugby league fan could dislike watching Greg Inglis in his early (or later - but he was at Souths so I chose to dislike it) incarnation or Billy Slater. Smith is the smartest footballer I’ve ever seen although Nathan Cleary is rapidly closing that gap.

But there is a difference between slowing play down through contact, line speed and dominant tackling, and slowing it down predominantly through wrestling and finding new ways to push the boundaries.


Yes there is absolutely no doubt that every team wrestles to some degree and at its peak it was noticeable across a lot of clubs but Melbourne did it to a level that no other side did and as what I would consider at least something of a purist, it did start to piss me off. I had nothing but respect for the fact that they were continually successful but I never ever WANTED to watch them after a time. A play slowed down because someone is in a grip that he can’t get out of isn’t something I associate with footy. Someone carting the ball up as hard as he can into the teeth of the defence, and seeing a wall of blokes who’s fitness is just too good so they keep presenting set after set, and driving him back and forcing him to get off his back and take an eternity to play the ball; to me that’s better to watch.

But trust me I’ll sit through a dozen more Melbourne titles if it means 0 souths, Parra, St George, dogs, manly, Brisbane premierships in the near future

 

[sosos]

lol. I’m a NsWelshman who’s supported Qld his whole life. Without Melbourne Qld would have been f**ked for the last 20 years. I have no allegiance to any state when it comes to club football.

I actually don’t mind Melbourne and some aspects of their game when they were at their absolute peak, I really liked. No true rugby league fan could dislike watching Greg Inglis in his early (or later - but he was at Souths so I chose to dislike it) incarnation or Billy Slater. Smith is the smartest footballer I’ve ever seen although Nathan Cleary is rapidly closing that gap.

But there is a difference between slowing play down through contact, line speed and dominant tackling, and slowing it down predominantly through wrestling and finding new ways to push the boundaries.


Yes there is absolutely no doubt that every team wrestles to some degree and at its peak it was noticeable across a lot of clubs but Melbourne did it to a level that no other side did and as what I would consider at least something of a purist, it did start to piss me off. I had nothing but respect for the fact that they were continually successful but I never ever WANTED to watch them after a time. A play slowed down because someone is in a grip that he can’t get out of isn’t something I associate with footy. Someone carting the ball up as hard as he can into the teeth of the defence, and seeing a wall of blokes who’s fitness is just too good so they keep presenting set after set, and driving him back and forcing him to get off his back and take an eternity to play the ball; to me that’s better to watch.

But trust me I’ll sit through a dozen more Melbourne titles if it means 0 souths, Parra, St George, dogs, manly, Brisbane premierships in the near future

Fair enough. Except for no titles for Manly!

But is what Melbourne did in the tackle back then, what made them change the rules around too slow to release the tackled player?

I'm really not a fan of the inconsistent application of that rule. Like AFL, this insane need for speed is pretty frustrating.

I wasn't watching a lot of league in those days, so I missed the controversy of that tactic. But I can see how it would have annoyed people.

 

[PhatBoy]

Fair enough. Except for no titles for Manly!

But is what Melbourne did in the tackle back then, what made them change the rules around too slow to release the tackled player?

I'm really not a fan of the inconsistent application of that rule. Like AFL, this insane need for speed is pretty frustrating.

I wasn't watching a lot of league in those days, so I missed the controversy of that tactic. But I can see how it would have annoyed people.

I can’t remember the exact timeline of when it started but the referees went through a phase of using - in the same way umpires call ‘stand’ - the term ‘dominant.’ They basically made a judgement call which was a way of making it official that the tacklers had ‘won’ the ruck and earned the right to take extra time getting off the tackled player.

I think this was around 2011-12??
They used ‘surrender’ as well which is still used but I think they’ve eradicated ‘dominant’ altogether.

Basically as I remember it, this is what the fallout was:
Melbourne were incredible at controlling the speed of the game with their wrestling, and these continual variations of grips and different holds etc - the chicken wing, grapple tackle, cannonball tackle, crusher tackle. All of these were banned but the wrestle itself was more or less here to stay because people saw how effective Melbourne were at slowing the game down. They stayed as the best team at doing it, and you could turn a tackle that wasn’t necessarily ‘dominant’ (where you really smash someone) into one where you still are able to put someone on their back and make life difficult for them and slow things down.

Everyone had a wrestling coach. The game got really ugly at times. It wasn’t universally bad, obviously. Even Melbourne themselves still had some great footy in them but their default setting was just that wrestle, gritty style to choke teams out of the contest.

And that league-wide adoption of the wrestle I guess is probably what has, step by step, led to the six agains and the constant bid to speed things up.
Teams were happy to give away penalties and re-set their defence - we certainly were during the back to back titles.

To me, and this is obviously just my own personal opinion, while Penrith might bend things a bit occasionally by holding down on the first tackle as Willie Mason pointed out and giving away an extra tackle to get their line set, they basically do the rest within the boundaries of ‘good taste’ and don’t clog the game up with ugly holds and getting themselves tangled up etc. I’ve never really found them dirty either.
Not that I have a real intrinsic problem with that - I’m a roosters fan after all - but they don’t really push the boundaries of sportsmanship a great deal with dog shots etc.

 

[Falconista]

Surely NSW are putting in all the moves to have Ivan as Origin coach commencing 2028. He'd make a bloody good Blues coach.

 

[Around the Wicket]

The dogs are an absolute mess at the moment.

 

[Around the Wicket]

**** I’m a dumbass, was going to go Sharks 13+ all week but then seen there 9 is a late out and Dogs are due so went Dogs 13+… 18-0 after 17 Sharks

 

[PhatBoy]

Dogs and Souths lose. Magic start to magic round.

Honestly I feel sorry for some of the Dogs guys because I would never question the endeavour of that club’s players but they just stink at the moment.