NRL 2024 Finals predictor: Which clubs will make the eight, who will win the spoon

Want to know if your team is going to play finals footy? Check out our exclusive interactive guide in which our experts rate the chances of every club and predict who play who in the first round of finals.

Who will make the finals?

Luke Brooks will be hoping the impending return of Tom Trbojevic will be the catalyst that finally helps guide him to the promise land — the NRL finals.

The Manly five-eighth owns rugby league’s longest finals drought — a staggering 220 first-grade games without a post-season appearance — since making his debut in 2013.

A decade at the Wests Tigers consigned Brooks to post-season holidays each September, rather than running out for finals matches.

Brooks’ finals agony is almost 100 games longer than the next longest drought, which belongs to former Tigers teammate Alex Twal with 135 NRL appearances.

After an off-season switch to Manly, Brooks is once again walking a tightrope towards the top eight, with the Sea Eagles sitting precariously outside the finals places with 11 weeks left in the regular season.

The log-jam for top-eight places, plus a hotly contested wooden spoon battle, has the NRL season set for a grandstand finish.

Our experts have predicted every game from every remaining round, while the Fox Sports Lab Predictor has also analysed the draw, to determine where your team will finish.

The expert predictions have revealed:

– Manly’s final two matches against Canterbury and Cronulla could decide whether Brooks finally tastes September football;

– Wayne Bennett is also pushing to keep the Dolphins in the top-eight, which would end the finals droughts of Jeremy Marshall-King (129 games), Jake Averillo (91) and Josh Kerr (90);

– It could be an all-Brisbane elimination final with the Broncos and Dolphins on a collision course in the first week of the finals;

– Cameron Ciraldo is poised to secure Canterbury’s first finals appearance since 2016, in just his second year in charge of the club;

– the Wests Tigers and Parramatta could face a final-round clash for the wooden spoon.

Fox Sports Lab Predictor has analysed each team’s finals chances, including their hopes for a top-four and top-eight finish, and likelihood of running last.

Every week, it recalculates those odds based on the weekend’s results.

South Sydney are currently only a three per cent chance of making the top eight, despite a four-game winning streak.

Newcastle have less than a 30 per cent chance of replicating their stunning finals run from last season, given they must do most of it without injured captain Kalyn Ponga.

While Penrith and Melbourne appear locked in a battle for the minor premiership, with Cronulla ready to pounce, courtesy of their very favourable draw.

Originally published as NRL 2024 Finals predictor: Which clubs will make the eight, who will win the spoon