September hate watch: The NRL finals crisis no one saw coming

September 4, 2026 — 3:30pm

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Which top-eight club do you hate the most? This is the annual conundrum for the rugby league world as the weather warms up and the semi-finals start.

For the majority of fans, watching the NRL in September is no longer about your team, who are now behind the wire in some secure tropical holiday resort, their mobile phones in lockboxes.

When your team is off on Mad Monday, your focus turns to who you most want to lose the premiership.

“Hate watch 2025” was a vintage edition, delivering a Broncos-Storm grand final. Could it be arranged that both clubs lose? The narrative was somewhat spoilt when the decider turned into one of the greatest matches and Reece Walsh’s magnetism became irresistible.

League lovers needed a whole summer to get over their shock at having become Broncos fans for a night.

This year, the hatred is roaming restlessly for a target. No Brisbane, no Melbourne, no traditionally hated Sydney teams like Manly or Canterbury. Parramatta and the Dragons, hated with great vigour in their day, are objects of pity.

As for the Tigers, they are hated by their own fans. True rugby league hatred is earned through success; and, as success has funnelled itself into a select cartel recently, the jealous rage of the starving has fewer places to go.

Having hoarded plenty of that success, Penrith and the Roosters will be the neutral fans’ first choices to lose.

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Penrith have had too much.........

© The Age