The draw for the 2024 NRL Season is out now, and as ever it has seen an explosion in fans complaining, comparing and bemoaning the 2024 season fixtures for opposition toughness, turnarounds, travel and TV viewing. So to put some arguments to rest or pour a can on the fire is our 2024 NRL Draw Analysis.
As ever The Gurgler is here to overcomplicate things and throw in so many visuals and barely interesting stats that most readers will give up halfway through. Your loss, as we have so many choice cuts of data it could almost be called a Butcher’s Shop of rugby league meat.
So sit back and get ready to look into the future and dive into the…..
2024 NRL Draw Analysis
FIXTURE DIFFICULTY
Fixture difficulty is based on where the 2024 opponent finished in 2023.
Tough start to the season for the Melbourne Storm as they face four of last season’s top five in their first four games, with a bye in round 4. But on their side is that three of those games are at home.
Great start to the season for two of the Queensland sides. Dolphins play three of the bottom four from 2023 and Gold Coast play second last, third last and fifth last to start the season.
Given the Broncos play Penrith in the Grand Final rematch in Round 3, and the Battle of Brisbane isn’t until Round 6, it looks unlikely that both teams will be unbeaten going into that game like in 2023.
Not great reading for South Sydney as they have the fourth hardest fixtures to start the season and the hardest fixtures to end the season.
The overall opposition position seems reasonably fair over the course of the season, although Cronulla seem to have the easiest season ahead.
FULL 2024 FIXTURES BY OPPOSITION ’23 LADDER POSITION
2024 FIXTURES BY OPPOSITION AVERAGE ’23 LADDER POSITION
2024 FIXTURES BY OPPOSITION AVERAGE ’23 LADDER – FIRST/LAST 7 ROUNDS
VS OPPOSITION – TOP / BOTTOM HALF FINISH IN 2023
VS OPPOSITION – TOP / BOTTOM HALF FINISH IN 2023 – FIRST/LAST 7 ROUNDS
DISTANCE TRAVELLED
This is the distance the away team has to travel for each game. Note we have not included teams who have moved home games, as they chose to travel so get a 0km based on the home game. Las Vegas is not included as it would ruin all our visuals.
Distance travelled may be an obvious one with the New Zealand Warriors and North Queensland needing to do the most travelling. But we have split the distance travelled in to first/last seven rounds, and some clubs would only need an Uber for their last seven weeks.
The Warriors travel the most unsurprisingly, and their reward for an outstanding 2023 campaign is they travel for a further 2,000kM+ in 2024 compared to the 2023 NRL Draw Analysis.
The Sydney Rooster travel less than 200km in the first seven rounds, in you ignore the small thing of a trip to Las Vegas.
FULL DISTANCE TRAVELLED (AWAY) BY ROUND
FULL DISTANCE TRAVELLED (AWAY) TOTAL
FULL DISTANCE TRAVELLED (AWAY) FIRST / LAST SEVEN ROUNDS
HOME & AWAY
No, not the show, just a quick rundown of the home and away fixtures for all of the sides for the 2024 NRL season.
Melbourne Storm get four home games in their first five games, and Parramatta have five of their first seven, although one is in Darwin. So enjoy that heat. Flip side for Storm is they have four games away from home in the last five rounds.
DAY
Just a quick look at the kick off times for all teams for the 2024 NRL season.
Newcastle will hopefully like playing on a Sunday.
Broncos love Friday nights as per usual.
TIME
You can’t have day without time, it just wouldn’t make sense. So make sense of the games by time visual below.
DAY / NIGHT
The last of the kick off times to qualify for a day game is 4pm in our opinion and as per the visuals below.
An amazing stat that Melbourne have just one day game in 2024.
Gold Coast and Newcastle are top of the daytime games. Which makes sense for the Gold Coast and their beaches.
DAYS TURNAROUND
One big sticking point is the days turnaround between games, and some teams have been luckier than others.
Penrith are one of the unlucky ones with four five-day turnarounds. Sydney teams fare the worst with tighter turnaround, but they also travel less over the season.
DAY TURNAROUNDS BETWEEN GAMES BY ROUND IN 2024
FIVE DAY TURNAROUNDS in 2024
AVERAGE DAYS TURNAROUNDS
CHANNEL NEIN
Everyone like to bitch about Channel Nein for their tired coverage, ads, Gus Gould and bias in the comm box and choosing games.
So here to fan the flames of hate towards Channel Nein are the 2024 NRL Draw Stats.\
As reigning triple premiers you’d expect Penrith to be top of the Channel Nein charts, and we guess Souths still have enough box office players left to warrant an equal top rating. Although, not on a Sunday where they get just the one appearance.
Channel Nein are banking on the Knights continuing their Kalyn Ponga inspired second half season form into 2024 by giving them the most Sunday afternoon slots.
CHANNEL NEIN GAMES IN 2024 WITH HOIME / AWAY
SELECTED CHANNEL NEIN GAMES IN 2024
BYES
Just in case you need a quick season guide to the byes, here it is.
