After 27 weeks of the NRL competition, the cream has risen to the top with eight remaining to fight for the premiership trophy on the first weekend of October.
With plenty of sides showing strengths and vulnerabilities in recent weeks, intriguing questions emerge of who will make the significant moves during the play-offs series?
Here are the five biggest questions heading into Week 1 of the finals.
1. Is this the most open premiership race in years?
Despite just mentioning the Warriors and Panthers as clear favourites, this year has proven any team can win on their day.
It's perfectly shown with the Dolphins and the Roosters, who round out the top four.
The Dolphins had 66 points put on them at home by the Sharks in July, yet still made the top four and are a dangerous threat when they get going.
Meanwhile, the Roosters lost 48-10 to the Dolphins in Round 15, throwing any sort of cohesion in the ladder placement out of the window. It's anyone's game.
The old tale of conceding 50+ will rule you out of the premiership race has never been closer to shattering courtesy of the NRL's ambition to speed up the game.
The Sharks have proven they are a handful if the game plan goes their way, as shown in their Redcliffe demolition.
If they can get back to their fast style of footy, with Blayke Brailey scheming around the ruck and Hynes running the ball at the line, they will trouble the top four.
The Rabbitohs also emerge as a genuine dark horse following the return of Latrell Mitchell and the form shown by David Fifita.
Mitchell is a genuine game-breaker who instills confidence in the surrounding players by simply being out there.
If he can find some form in September, the whole South Sydney side will elevate in following pursuit.
Coached by Wayne Bennett, the Rabbitohs can never be written off, and boast an elite back line who work hard in defence and know how to finish tries.
They rank as the only club in the bottom half of the finals that the top teams would no doubt hate to come up against in elimination matches.
Even Newcastle, despite missing plenty of stars for their finals run, appear as a threat with the likes of Kalyn Ponga, Fletcher Sharpe, Bradman Best and Manulelua.
Given there is less pressure on the bottom-four finals teams to win the competition due to less expectation, it makes them all the more dangerous for an ambush.
History suggests no team can win the premiership outside of the top four, but 2026 may prove to defy the record books and provide one of the most competitive showings in recent history.
