NRL – Top 8 NRL 2025 Betting Odds & Expert’s Predictions

There might be two runaway favourites to win the NRL Premiership in 2025, but things look likely to be very tight a little further down the ladder. There is not a single team that isn’t a realistic chance of playing finals heading into the season, with the Raiders sitting at the bottom of the list with virtually all betting sites in Australia but still paying under $4 to finish in the top eight. That makes for a really intriguing betting market, and one with potentially some good value to find. That’s exactly what we will try to do on this page, as we hunt down the best value outsiders to play finals in 2025.

The Roosters were a bonafide top four side last season, and even if they were ultimately proven to be a peg or two below the Storm and the Panthers, they were still a very dangerous unit and probably the best of the rest outside of the Grand Finalists. That fact alone makes the odds on offer with betting sites for them to make this year’s finals look pretty tempting, but after a mass exodus in the off-season this won’t be the same team as it was last year.

The Roosters have had a glut of players either retire or head elsewhere and have a significantly weaker team as a result, but they still have a fair bit of room to drop and still make the finals. They are a tough team to predict this season after all those changes, but there is still a fair bit of talent in their ranks and they will be absolutely still hoping to play finals. The $2.10 on offer with PlayUp is certainly worth considering.

• What brings them here? Were it not for their mass of changes in the off-season, the Roosters would be far, far shorter to make the finals.
  
• What has changed? A lot. The Roosters have lost heaps of players including Joseph Manu and Jaered Waerea-Hargreaves, while Chad Townsend comes in.
  
• Injury report. Each of Egan Butcher, Brandon Smith and Sam Walker are listed as TBC with knee injuries – the latter an ACL – while Spencer Leniu misses the first two games of the year through suspension.

Bet on the Roosters to make the top 8 at $2.10 with PlayUp

The Cowboys have had a topsy turvy few years, with their finishes over the past four seasons reading 15th, 3rd, 11th, 5th. They will be hoping to arrest that trend this year by making the finals for the second year in a row for the first time since 2017, but with the loss of a few key players they’re far from a lock.

The Cowboys have seen Valentine Holmes, Chad Townsend and Kyle Feldt all depart and may well see a drop off this year as a result. But at their best over the past couple of seasons the Cowboys have been really dangerous. There is certainly a limit on how far this team can go, but they should at least be right in amongst what will likely be a plethora of teams fighting for similar spots in the bottom half of the top eight.   

• What brings them here? The Cowboys made their way into a semi-final last year, and while that would be a good result for them this season they should still be in the finals mix.
  
• What has changed? Holmes, Townsend and Feldt are gone, while John Bateman has joined the team.
  
• Injury report. Tom Chester and Heilum Luki are out for the season with ACL injuries.

Bet on the Cowboys to make the top 8 at $2.10 with PlayUp

The Rabbitohs’ 2024 season was tumultuous to say the least, but with Wayne Bennett returning to the coaching ranks they will be looking to put that behind them and rapidly climb back up the ladder. This team certainly has the potential; they were one of the Premiership favourites entering last season before losing nine of their first ten.

They subsequently went on to win five in a row, before – just to make things even more confusing – going on another big losing streak to end the year. The gap between the ceiling and floor of this team is pretty significant, but there are plenty of good players running around for the Bunnies. It might not be the most well-constructed team in the world, but Bennett has made a career out of extracting the best from his players and if he can do that this team should be playing finals in 2025.

• What brings them here? The Rabbitohs finished second last in 2024 but should be expecting a much higher finish this season.
  What has changed? The coach, while Damien Cook has left and the enigmatic Josh Schuster joins the team.
  Injury report. Latrell Mitchell will miss the first month and a half of the season, while Alex Johnston and Campbell Graham will miss around the first month. Lewis Dodd is unavailable for Round 1 through suspension.

Bet on the Rabbitohs to make the top 8 @ $2.50 with BetRight

The Warriors are another side that had a really disappointing 2024 season and will be looking to bounce back this year, and there is no real reason to think that they can’t do just that. After finishing in the top four in 2023 they fell out of the finals mix last season, but with a couple of big pick-ups they will be expecting a lot more this year.

James Fisher-Harris is a huge acquisition for the Warriors, while Tanah Boyd could also be a useful inclusion. Given they were Preliminary Finalists just a couple of years ago, this team clearly has the ability to do a lot better than they did last year, particularly with the addition of Fisher-Harris to their ranks. This team has the potential to be a really dangerous one and if they can make trips across the pond as difficult as possible for opponents, they should be winning a lot of games. At close to $3 with NRL betting sites, they look like good value to make the top eight.  

• What brings them here? The Warriors are value in this market courtesy of a really disappointing 2024 season.
  
• What has changed? Fisher-Harris is the biggest in while Boyd could also help. Shaun Johnson’s time at the Warriors, however, is done.
  
• Injury report. Rocco Berry and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak are the only names on the injury list entering the season, both with indefinite timelines.

Bet on the Warriors to make the top 8 @ $2.75 with BetRight

The Titans were the worst team in the league and the runaway favourite for the Wooden Spoon a month into last season, but for an extended period through the middle of the year they showed that they are more than capable of matching it with most sides in the league. With the return of Tino Fa’asuamaleaui after he missed all of last year with an ACL injury, this team has the potential to win a lot more games than they did in 2024.

They might not be absolutely brimming with talent, but for a good two or three months last year the Titans either won or lost by a very slim margin every single week. Towards the back end of the season things blew out a little at times, but they did still manage eight wins for the year despite losing their first six and their last five. They should be a little better this season for the presence of Fa’asuamaleaui, and if they can avoid the heinous start they had last year could present good value to make the top eight at $3 with PlayUp.  

• What brings them here? The Titans were realistically a fair way off making finals last year, but are not without a chance in 2025.
  
• What has changed? Tanah Boyd is out, while Reagan Campbell-Gillard joins from the Eels.
  
• Injury report. Campbell-Gillard had an interrupted pre-season and probably misses a game or two to start the year, while Kieran Foran and Josiah Pahulu are both TBC with their injuries.

Bet on the Titans to make the top 8 @ $3.00 with PlayUp

The Wests Tigers…in the finals?? It sounds like a crazy prospect, and while it’s certainly only an outside chance, even that is an improvement on where things have been for the Tigers in recent years. They have won three consecutive Wooden Spoons, but this is the best side coach Benji Marshall has had at his disposal, and after jumping from 4 wins to 6 last season, they will be expecting plenty more improvement in 2025.

Jarome Luai is a massive pick-up from Panthers, joining the least successful club in the league over the past few years from the most successful and bringing with him Premiership experience in droves as a result. With Terrell May, Royce Hunt and Sunia Turuva also joining the fray, this is a new look team that will be hoping to tear themselves off the bottom of the ladder and potentially even up towards the top 8 this year.

• What brings them here? The Tigers have been nowhere near the top eight for some time, but some big pick-ups in the off-season could see them begin their climb up the ladder.
  
• What has changed? Each of Luai, May, Hunt and Turuva will slot into the team, while Stefano Utoikamanu has moved on.
  
• Injury report. Brent Naden has a knee injury and his timeline is still to be confirmed.

Bet on the Tigers to make the top 8 @ $3.25 with BetRight

This will be the Dolphins’ first season in the NRL without the legendary Wayne Bennett steering the ship, and it will be intriguing to see how they navigate the NRL waters without his guidance. But they have not been far off playing finals footy in each of their two years in the league, and Kristian Woolf will be looking to keep this team trending in the direction in which Bennett pointed them.

They have won nine and then 11 games in their first two seasons in the league, and a case could easily be made that they were among the best eight teams in the NRL last season. They fell just short after, for the second year running, falling in a bit of a heap in the latter half of the season, but with only a couple of changes of note to a team which went very close to playing finals in 2024, they look like good value to do it for the first time this year.

• What brings them here? The Dolphins have been competitive earlier than most expected, and went agonisingly close to playing finals for the first time last year.
  
• What has changed? Bennett out and Woolf in is a significant change, while on the field they have lost Jarrod Wallace but brought in Daniel Saifiti.
  
• Injury report. Thomas Flegler will be out for half of the season with a shoulder injury, while Trai Fuller remains out indefinitely with an ACL and Jack Bostock with a knee injury of his own.

Bet on the Dolphins to make the top 8 @ $3.50 with BetRight

The Knights have made the finals in each of the last two seasons, and on that alone look like decent value as one of the longest odds teams to finish in the top 8 in 2025. That said, they were one of many teams fighting for the coveted 8th spot last season and just happened to be the one that snuck in, and with no major changes coming in the off-season they could be surpassed by a few this year.

The Knights will not be world-beaters this season, but they should also be expecting to win at least 10 games and be in the mix for finals late in the year. Kalyn Ponga is clearly their most important player and needs to be fit and firing for them, but if he does there is enough talent on this team to at the very least be competing for a spot in the finals. At long odds, there are much worse value picks on the board than the Knights.

• What brings them here? The Knights have been finalists in each of the past two seasons.
  
• What has changed? They have lost Daniel Saifiti and brought in James Schiller, but there won’t be many major changes to this team this season.
  
• Injury report. All clear on the injury front for the Knights heading into the season.

Bet on the Knights to make the top 8 @ $3.50 with BetRight

This is a great market in 2025, with an unprecedented number of teams in the mix to play finals – by which I mean basically all of them. It’s testament to the closeness of the league that the Knights, having made finals in the last two seasons and not made many changes, are at the third longest odds to make it in 2025. They look like decent value, but there are better options out there. The Rabbitohs and Warriors are standouts to me, though the Bunnies’ gap between their best and worst-case scenario scares me off a little here. The Warriors will be looking to prove last year was just a blip on the radar after finishing top four in 2023, and with the massive addition of James Fisher-Harris they will have high hopes of improving this season. At nearly $3, they look like a good value bet to make the finals in 2025.