Roosters forced into Panthers and Broncos double-up

The NRL has been slammed after it released a highly controversial draw for the 2025 season. Numerous coaches and fans quickly took aim at the fixture list which was released on Thursday, with many clubs feeling hard done by.

But no club’s fixtures are more strange than that of the Roosters. The Tri Colours face the Panthers and the Broncos twice each in the opening seven matches. And despite the ugly-looking start to the season, the Tri Colours are actually heavily favoured by the draw which has drawn the ire of many fans who feel the Sydney club is routinely looked after.

While facing the four-time defending champions Penrith and Broncos twice before their annual ANZAC Day clash against the Dragons is a tough start to the campaign, the Roosters have been looked after through the difficult to navigate Origin period, where all three of their byes drop between round 10 and round 17.

Trent Robinson‘s men will also have to do very little travelling outside of Sydney for the entire 2025 campaign, just 10,371 km. Only the Bulldogs (8,213 km) will do less travel next season. And to put it into perspective, in the 1920 minutes of footy, the Roosters will play in the 2025 regular season, almost 1440 of those minutes will take place in Sydney.

And veteran league commentator Andrew Voss has torched the NRL’s peculiar fixture less which he believes is anything but fair and equal. “So we put a man on the moon in 1969, allegedly, 55 years ago and we still have a draw, and not to Rooster bash at all but wow,” he told SEN on Friday.

“If you are not aware in the first seven rounds of next season they have come up with a draw where the Roosters play the Broncos twice and the Panthers twice. So four of their first seven games are against two teams. How the hell does a computer system spit that out? That’s not even close to everyone playing each other once before you play a team twice.

“They’re big games. I don’t know what the explanation is for that. How does a computer system spit that out? Surely the NRL looked at that and went that’s not right, surely.” And many NRL fans were equally unhappy with the NRL draw, in particular the one handed to the Roosters.

Ricky Stuart slams horror Raiders draw for 2025 season

While the Roosters’ draw largely looks after them, the same can’t be said for the Canberra Raiders. In a horror start to the NRL season, Ricky Stuart‘s men are set to clock up to 48,000km of travel in the all-important early rounds of the 2025 campaign.

The #NRL's insistence on having teams play each other twice in the span of 1-2 months during the season instead of spreading it out continues to be utterly baffling. Their draw makes no sense whatsoever.

— Mark Gottlieb (@MarkGottlieb) November 21, 2024

Surely it’s not that difficult for all teams to play each other once, then play a 2nd time at the opposite venue for the remaining rounds available.
To play the same team twice within a few weeks doesn’t give an even draw.

— Trev Hal (@trev_hal) November 21, 2024

It's been confirmed the Roosters have the easiest draw again pic.twitter.com/h5VSmi4YKS

— King Pauly (@MrSonicPauly) November 21, 2024

Roosters draw analysis

– No five day turnarounds – 17 games with a turnaround of 7 or more days
– Only leaving Sydney 4 times this season
– do have a tough slate of teams we play twice
– 13 games on Friday night’s
– 7 Saturday’s (all 5:30 or 7:30 games)

— Amit (@kaleboyy) November 21, 2024

Following a 26,000km trip to Las Vegas to help the NRL once again attempt to win over the US market, the Raiders will then pack their bags from the Nation’s Capital for games in Townsville, Darwin, Gold Coast, Brisbane and Auckland in the first three months of the season.

In the first 12 rounds, the Raiders will play at home just five times. It is the most exhaustive away schedule of any of the 17 clubs, with the Sharks also doing it tough early on, being drawn to play the Cowboys in Townsville in round two after heading to the US in round one and being made to make the trek to Canberra and Perth in back-to-back weeks in rounds five and six.

And Stuart didn’t hold back when delivering his thoughts on the 2025 fixture list which he said was the toughest in his NRL coaching career. “I find it inconceivable that someone could think it’s fair to ask our players to travel to Sydney, Townsville, Darwin, Gold Coast and Brisbane in the space of six weeks. Then we’re off to Auckland soon after and you can add a trip to Mudgee (against Penrith) later in the season also,” Stuart said on Thursday after the release of the draw.

“It’s the most imbalanced draw that I’ve had since I started coaching. I’ll get labelled a whinger. I’m okay with that. Because I know that every other coach, outside Andrew Webster at the Warriors, would feel the same way if they were handed this.

“We’re being asked to do upwards of 40,000km of travel when some other teams have got 7000km. I will keep standing up for my club and players whilst ever I am their coach and this is wrong what they have been handed. It smells of “oh well, it’s only the Raiders’. I can’t complain about Las Vegas, we put our hand up for that and are excited by it. But what follows on after that has left me stunned.’”