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| Round | Date | Match | Kick-off (AEST) | How to watch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Preliminary Final 1 | Friday, 24 September | South Sydney vs Manly | 6:00 PM | Kayo Sports, Foxtel Channel 9 |
| Preliminary Final 2 | Saturday, 25 September | Melbourne vs Penrith | 2:30 PM | Kayo Sports, Foxtel Channel 9 |
| Grand Final | Sun, 03 Oct | Penrith vs South Sydney | 7:00 PM | Kayo Sports, Foxtel Channel 9 |
Are you ready for finals football? The 2021 postseason is here and it promises to be another thrilling race to the premiership. You have options on free-to-air television, along with Foxtel, Kayo Sports and more.
Only a handful of matches from the regular rounds are broadcast on traditional TV via Channel 9 and they're broken up by ads. Plus some teams are favoured more than others. Channel 9 does at least show every NRL finals game and the grand final exclusively live.
Live stream every NRL game on Kayo: 14-day free trial
If you're a casual NRL fan, free-to-air coverage might be enough to satisfy your cravings. You can watch 3 games per round on the Nine Network. This includes 1 Thursday night match, 1 Friday night fixture and a Sunday afternoon clash. An additional game per round on Saturday night is traditionally shown for the last 5 rounds of the season. As mentioned above, Nine broadcasts every game of the finals series including the grand final.
Kayo Sports has access to all the Fox Sports content, as well as everything coming into the country through beIN SPORTS and ESPN. It includes over 50 sports live and on demand, plus all the supplementary programming such as chat shows and news. Notably, everything from the Fox League channel is available to watch on replay, live or in highlights packages. The streaming platform also offers every game of the finals. The grand final isn’t available to stream live, as it is exclusive to free-to-air, but a replay is shown on Kayo Sports right after fulltime.
Kayo Sports really stands out from the crowd not only for the quality of its HD streaming, but also thanks to some rather excellent sport-specific viewing features. This includes SplitView (4 sports at once on the same screen), Interactive Stats, No Spoilers (hide scores mode), Key Moments (a timeline of important events in a game you can jump to), picture-in-picture mode, choose your own camera and plenty more. You can see all of the details in our Kayo Sports review.
Kayo works with Macs and PCs, as well as iOS and Android smartphones and laptops. It can also be watched on a TV via Chromecast, Apple TV, PS4, PS5, Android TV, Telstra TV, Sony Bravia TV and Samsung TV (2017 or later). You can choose a $25/month subscription to be able to watch on 2 screens at the same time or pay $35/month to enjoy 3 simultaneous streams.
A 14-day free trial is available for new customers, which is easy to sign up for and cancel.
Foxtel broadcasts every game of the NRL Telstra Premiership, with the exception of the grand final. To tune in, you will need the Sports HD and Foxtel Plus packs, for a combined cost of $74/month.
Once that’s done, you will be able to stream matches with your laptop or mobile device via the Foxtel GO app. The app is free with your Foxtel subscription. All you have to do is download it from Google Play or the App Store and enter your Foxtel ID. To stream on your laptop, check out the Foxtel website.
10-day free trial of Foxtel Now
Live stream the NRL in HD with Kayo's FREE TRIAL and no lock-in contract
League fans can also stream NRL matches with Foxtel Now. To get FOX League, you will need the Sport pack, which costs $29/month. Subscribers also need the Essentials pack to be able to access sports content, which costs $25/month and comes with a great selection of Pop and Lifestyle channels. Consequently, you will pay a minimum of $54/month to stream NRL games with Foxtel Now.
The streaming service is available on PCs/Macs, mobile devices, Chromecast/AirPlay, PS4, Telstra TV and the Foxtel Now box.
The 2021 grand final is scheduled for Sunday 3 October and for the first time it will be held outside of Sydney due to the pandemic. At the time of writing, the massive showdown will be held at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. The only way to watch the big game live is on Channel 9. You can also live stream the game on the 9Now app. It is then replayed on Foxtel and Kayo Sports.
If you’re outside Australia when your favourite team is playing, you can still stream NRL matches live or on demand with Watch NRL. The platform is only available outside the country and it comes with three subscription options.
During the regular rounds, a weekly pass costs $20, a monthly subscription is $39 and membership for an entire year is available for $199. During the finals, the weekly pass rises to $25, or you can get the entire finals series for $85. For the grand final, the weekly pass is abolished altogether and the $33 monthly pass is the best you can get.
You can watch on your laptop, on the Watch NRL website or download the app to your mobile device. Watch NRL is also compatible with Chromecast and AirPlay.
If you're travelling outside of Australia, you can stream the NRL Premiership on PC, iPhone, Android or TV (using Chromecast or AirPlay) with Watch NRL's app. Sign up now.
View detailsThe NRL Live app serves as your gateway to the world of NRL streaming. You can download the app for free on Apple, Android and Windows mobile devices. Without forking over a cent you'll have access to live scores and statistics, match highlight videos and up-to-date news and reports.
You could previously subscribe to NRL Live Pass, or get it free if you are a Telstra customer, to get live streams of all Telstra Premiership matches, including representative games and the finals series, Nines and All Stars events. But the service is now being phased out in favour of Kayo Sports.
After 31 May 2001, Telstra mobile customers with Live Pass access were given an offer to subscribe to Kayo for just $5 per month, an 80% saving on the usual cost for a basic subscription. Non-Telstra customers who had bought a yearly pass were eligible for a refund. You can see the full details of the Telstra and Kayo Live Pass agreement here.
In response to the demands of State of Origin on the regular season competition, bye rounds were introduced. This takes the pressure off the teams during the State of Origin period, where the elite players are removed from the competition. It also gives players a bit of extra time mid-season to get any niggling injuries under control.
The coronavirus pandemic forced last year's Origin series into a season-ending event in November. It also forced changes this year. Originally slated for Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney, the series was ultimately held entirely in Queensland due to the pandemic. For Blues fans, that made it even sweeter when NSW regained the Shield with a 2-1 series triumph.
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Hi, regarding live streaming NRL games live, I notice on a different website the tablet needs to b a certain size and brand, is this true? Or as long as it’s running Android 4.2 or above? I’m not a Telstra customer…can I live stream the games with Wi-Fi at home without maxing out my data? Cheers
Hi Brendan,
Thanks for your question. You don’t need a specific brand of tablet to stream NRL games live, though the tablet must be less than 7 inches in size (measured diagonally across the screen).
If you’re streaming games on your home Wi-Fi connection, the average match is going to use up approximately 900MB of data if you’re on a tablet, and approximately 400MB of data on a smaller phone. Whether this will max out your data will depend on how large your home broadband data cap is.
I hope this helps!
Regards,
Matt