Round 24 of the 2025 NRL season has wrapped up, so we’re looking over the results and digging into three big takeaways from the weekend.
The Penrith Panthers and Melbourne Storm played out an instant Game of the Season contender on Thursday night. Prepare yourselves, NRL fans. The Grand Final might look similar to others in recent years…
It wasn’t pretty for the New Zealand Warriors on Friday night, but the Kiwi club managed to end their losing streak with a 14-10 win over the St George Illawarra Dragons to re-enter the Top 4. Now in the Top 8 following their 32-12 win over the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, the Sydney Roosters are quickly becoming the team nobody wants to play in September.
Watch all the highlights as the Roosters take on the Bulldogs in Round 24! 🎥 pic.twitter.com/eGjaEwmy5n
— NRL (@NRL) August 15, 2025
The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are still searching for some consistency, and while a 54-22 win over the lowly Gold Coast Titans won’t turn a season, it keeps them on the right track as finals contender. Nicho Hynes piled up 22 points on his own through two tries and seven conversions to lead the way for Craig Fitzgibbon’s side. It’s not all good news, though. Cameron McInnes suffered what could be a season-ending injury.
Chaos struck the Brisbane Broncos last week forcing Ben Hunt into the halves alongside Billy Walters. Still, Reece Walsh and company picked up a valuable 38-28 win over the Dolphins in the Battle of Brisbane.
For the Dolphins, the loss makes it 11 for the season to sit 9th on the NRL ladder, still searching for their first finals appearance in club history.
The South Sydney Rabbitohs made it back-to-back wins in beating the Parramatta Eels 20-16 on Saturday night. Jye Gray made three try-saving tackles, Tallis Duncan scored a double and Tyrone Munro caused Josh Addo-Carr trouble all night for key players in South Sydney’s future to orchestrate the present-day win.
Daly Cherry-Evans’ career with the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles is unlikely to extend longer than three games with his side falling to the Wests Tigers 26-12 on Sunday evening. He’s yet to announce his future beyond this season, but his 2025 campaign will more than likely end in Round 27 against the Warriors at 4 Pines Park.
Finally, the North Queensland Cowboys made the most of hosting a poor Newcastle Knights side to claim the much-needed 38-4 win.
3 Takeaways From Round 24
A Game Of The Season Contender
The Penrith Panthers have reasserted themselves as premiership contenders, but the Melbourne Storm stamped their authority on favoritism with a 22-18 win on Thursday night.
The match proved to be a classic of epic proportions.
Xavier Coates dominated in the air, the Panthers ran it from deep on the last, and a 12-minute arm-wrestle captures the nature of the match in general.
It wouldn’t be an epic without a controversial moment, but as the dust settles, most can accept Moese Leota’s blocking penalty that cancelled out Nathan Cleary’s field goal. Everybody can appreciate the genius of Harry Grant splitting the markers to run in the match winner in Golden Point.
Penrith started the NRL season in uncharacteristic fashion, but are characteristically coming good at the right time. They’re defensively sound and look dangerous with the ball. They’ve scored at will against poor opposition in recent weeks but 18 points against the Storm is an accurate reflection of their potency in attack. Meanwhile, the Storm are building form without Jahrome Hughes to finish the regular season. If they can continue to play like this before adding the superstar halfback, they’ll be the team to beat in September.
Watch all the highlights as the Panthers take on the Storm in Round 24! 🎥 pic.twitter.com/5v6iYNs0Am
— NRL (@NRL) August 14, 2025
Roosters Are Coming
The Sydney Roosters sit 8th on the NRL ladder after Round 24.
Trent Robinson spoke about how they’ve developed into their current style with the intention of sticking to it for the remainder of the season.
“We’ve decided on how we want to play, and we’re going about playing that at the moment. If there’s anything to pick up, we’ll pick up in a few months time again, but at the moment we’ve decided on how we’re going to play and it’s been a good couple of weeks on that.”
The Chooks have scored 96 points in the last fortnight and haven’t been beating up on bad teams to do it. The Dolphins are finals contenders and entered the game expecting to keep it close, if not win. Only two teams have put 30+ points on the Bulldogs this season like the Roosters did this week.
James Tedesco has reasserted himself as the best fullback in the competition and is pairing well with Sam Walker since his return from injury. With Nafahu Whyte announcing himself as a premier prop in the competition with Mark Nawaqanitawase doing similar at the wing position, the Roosters, once again, have quality spread across the field.
They’re learning how to put it all together at the moment, and are learning quick enough to become a premiership threat should they hold on to their spot in the Top 8.
Wests Tigers Finally On The Up
With too many false starts to count throughout their three-consecutive wooden spoons, the Wests Tigers are finally starting to climb the NRL ladder.
They’re no-longer the easy beats and don’t turn into a training run opposition the moment it gets difficult. Benji Marshall has this side playing with confidence and belief.
Still a long way from being considered a genuine finals side, the Tigers are on the right path. Jarome Luai has found his role in the side alongside Adam Doueihi and Latu Fainu. You know Terrell May is playing better for his team the less attention he gets. Meanwhile, Taylan May has provided a much-needed spark on the edges to compliment a fairly ad-lib Tigers attack.
Most importantly for Wests, however, is the 26 points conceded in their last two games. They’ve always been dangerous with the ball, even while running last. It’s on the defensive end they’re let the game get away. If Marshall can continue to inspire an improvement without the ball, the Tigers will inch closer to finals footy in 2026.