On Friday August 26, the Newcastle Knights men’s and women’s NRL Touch Premiership teams will play their final home games for the season at McDonald Jones Stadium.
The New Zealand Warriors men’s and women’s elite touch football teams will travel to Newcastle to play from 4pm on Friday against the Knights, ahead of the Knights v Tigers NRL fixture.
“In the men’s tournament particularly, this Knights v Warriors match will be a significant one, since the Knights currently sit third on the ladder, and the Warriors fourth, both on the same number of points currently, said TFA CEO Jamie O’Connor.
Touch football long ball lesson
“The outcome of Friday’s Knights v Warriors men’s NRL Touch Premiership match will likely determine who will go into the semi-finals for the tournament, which are on 11th August.”
Both the Knights and Warriors sit below the North Queensland Cowboys, in first spot on the ladder, and the Wests Tigers, in second spot.
On the women’s ladder, the Knights, in fifth place, also sit just above the Warriors, in sixth place. The women’s tournament is currently led by the Parramatta Eels.
For the semi-finals, it will be a play-off between second and third to determine who will play the leading team for the Grand Final.
O’Connor, a Novocastrian himself, encourages the Hunter community to take a Friday early mark to get to the game to support their elite touch teams, made up largely of local talent.
“Crowd support for these teams could really help their chances of making it into the finals,” he said.
The NRL Touch Premiership is the new, televised elite touch football tournament in which men’s and women’s teams representing eight NRL clubs play curtain-raisers to NRL fixtures at stadiums around Australia and New Zealand.
For those who can’t make it to the Newcastle games, they will be streamed live and on-demand for free on NRL.com, as well as on Kayo Sports. Sunday games are broadcast on Fox League and Kayo.
The tournament tapped off on 6th April and runs through until the grand final on 18th August.
Touch Football is Australia’s largest social sport, with 680,000 participants, and a strong, talented participation base in the Hunter region.
