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or the first time in National Rugby Leagues (NRL) 114 year history, Brisbane is set to host the 2021 NRL grand final at Suncorp Stadium.

Due to the current COVID-19 lockdowns and outbreaks in Sydney, The Telstra Premiership final series will be held in Queensland venues after the competition relocated in July due to COVID-19 outbreaks in Victoria and NSW.

The Australian Rugby League (ARL) commission reached an agreement with the Queensland Government to host the finals series due to the ongoing pandemic

ARL commission’s chairman, Peter V’landys, acknowledged the NSW and Queensland Governments in their efforts for supporting the NRL grand final.

“I’d like to acknowledge the NSW Government, in particular Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Deputy Premier John Barilaro and Minister for Tourism Stuart Ayers for working collaboratively with us to reach an outcome that ensures the health and safety of NSW residents and allows the NRL to showcase the grand final live to rugby league fans,” he said.

“This has been a long and enduring partnership and one that will continue into the future.

“I’d also like to acknowledge Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young for their support in ensuring the continuity of our competition which provides an escapism to so many fans dealing with lockdowns, but also injects a significant amount of money into the Queensland economy.

“The Queensland Premier is a warrior for the people of Queensland and just keeps delivering for them.”

NRL CEO, Andrew Abdo, added: “Rugby league is part of the DNA of regional Queensland,” he said.

“A number of towns have played a key role in keeping the competition going and we want to reward those fans and councils for their support of rugby league.

“From every challenge comes an opportunity and this year has presented us with an opportunity to reward regional Queensland with finals games.

“We have fans far and wide and our finals schedule acknowledges and rewards our fans in regional areas with live football as well as South- East Queensland which has been home to our teams.

The finals series will kick off on Friday 10^th September as two elimination and two qualifying finals will be spread out over three days before the semi-finals and preliminary finals.

Abdo also said the NRL would continue to monitor infection rates in Queensland and work closely with Queensland Health to keep the community safe.

With the expected high demand for tickets during the finals series, fans are already on and encouraged to join the waitlist for tickets.