NRL

North Queensland Cowboys v Penrith Panthers, 7.05pm (8.05pm AEDT) Thursday at 1300Smiles Stadium

Cowboys: 1 Ben Hampton, 2 Kyle Feldt, 3 Justin O'Neill, 4 Javid Bowen, 5 Antonio Winterstein, 6 Michael Morgan, 7 Johnathan Thurston (c), 8 Matthew Scott (c), 9 Jake Granville, 10 Jordan McLean, 11 Gavin Cooper, 12 Coen Hess, 13 Jason Taumalolo

Interchange: 14 Te Maire Martin, 15 John Asiata, 16 Scott Bolton, 17 Ethan Lowe

Reserves: 18 Corey Jensen, 19 Lachlan Coote 

The club has been fined $750,000 and two officials - chief operating officer Neil Bare and former CEO Joe Kelly, who is now the boss at the Sydney Roosters - receiving 12-month bans.

Manly will also have a $660,000 penalty applied to their salary cap for this season and the 2019 Telstra Premiership.

The breaches involve 13 players over five years, totalling $1.5 million.

Brisbane Broncos 

Broncos pair Corey Oates and Tevita Pangai jnr were the casualties to come out of the 9-7 win over Wests Tigers on Friday night. Sam Thaiday received treatment for a nasty head gash but remained on the field. 

Tevita Pangai jnr (hamstring, scans to confirm extent of damage) 
Andre Savelio (knee, season) 
Jordan Kahu (jaw, round 9-12) 
Corey Oates (hip, scans to confirm extent of damage)

Canberra Raiders

The 19-year-old Papali'i limped off early in last week's 20-8 win over Gold Coast and has since been ruled out for up to six weeks with a medial knee ligament sprain.

He'll be replaced in the second row by ex-Titan Pulu, who has twice started on the bench this season and will line up alongside Tohu Harris and lock Ligi Sao.

As a result, fellow Warriors recruit Agnatius Paasi comes onto the bench, where he'll join another new face in Jazz Tevaga, who replaces Sam Cook.

Coach Stephen Kearney talked up Pulu's NRL pedigree.

The NRL and Penrith Panthers are confident of identifying the culprit from CCTV footage as he was seated in a prominent position near the Panthers Stadium tunnel, with Inglis allegedly abused as he came from the field after full-time on Saturday night.

Greenberg commended the Panthers, who have made an unreserved apology, for "working around the clock" to identify the crowd member.

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Winners

Warriors superstars Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (90) and Shaun Johnson (68) inspired their team to a win over the Ash Taylor-less Titans and grabbed a lot of Fantasy points in the process, sitting at one and two in the points rankings this week.

St George Illawarra Dragons prop James Graham claimed not to "understand the halfback position that well", but he summed up the reason NRL playmakers now command long-term contracts and big money as well as anyone during the opening weekend of the Telstra Premiership.

With record offseason movement of players and 14 of the 16 NRL teams fielding a different halves pairing than they did in last season's first round, the spotlight was always going to be on the performances of the playmakers – and most of them delivered in impressive style.

With the trials done and dusted, the NRL coaches are working frantically to decide on their best 17 players to front up in round 1. 

It doesn't look like there will be many NRL debuts handed out for the opening weekend with Cronulla Sharks winger Sione Katoa the most likely uncapped player to get a start.

Multiple media reports say the game is set to be played in the US, with planning already underway to make it a reality.

It is likely that the two sides who play in the US would be given extended breaks on either side of the long trip in order to deal with the minimum 12-hour flight players would face in both directions.

NRL CEO Todd Greenberg told Fairfax Media that planning was well advanced.

Calls for the NRL to expand into Port Moresby are growing louder by the year, given the island nation’s love of rugby league and ability to produce athletes.

Australian coach and league legend Mal Meninga has led the charge, while other figures such as Matty Johns and James Graham have backed PNG entering the world’s best competition.