Number Crunch: Which Team Is The King of Thursday NRL?

In the lead-up to the 2025 NRL season, we’ll take a look at some of the stats relating to how teams perform on different days of the week. This article takes a look at who dominates Thursday football.

Data compiled reflects win percentages between 2014 and 2024.

Best Record at Home Games

Embed from Getty Images

It’s no surprise that the Melbourne Storm at the home side kings of Thursday football, yet to drop a game in the last decade at home. This is on top of their impressive record at home in general, winning around 3 out of 4 games since 2014.

The Dolphins in their short history have only dropped one Thursday game at home, being their first ever against South Sydney at Suncorp Stadium on April 13, 2023.

Penrith are next best, winning 9 of their 13.

Surprisingly, the Sea Eagles record on Thursday games at home is poor winning 4 from 11. They’ve been beaten by the Panthers and Eels twice each during the period.

The New Zealand Warriors lack of matches is likely to do with travel distance and lack of television broadcast appeal, with last year’s ANZAC loss to the Titans their only fixutre in the last decade on Thursday.

• Melbourne Storm – Played 15, Won 15, Lost 0 (100% win percentage)
• Dolphins – Played 4, Won 3, Lost 1 (75% win percentage)
• Penrith Panthers – Played 13, Won 9, Lost 4 (69.2% win percentage)
• Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks – Played 11, Won 7, Lost 4 (63.6% win percentage)
• Wests Tigers – Played 8, Won 5, Lost 3 (62.5% win percentage)
• Sydney Roosters – Played 16, Won 9, Lost 7 (56.3% win percentage)
• Parramatta Eels – Played 18, Won 10, Lost 8 (55.6% win percentage)
• Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs – Played 12, Won 6, Lost 6 (50% win percentage)
• North Queensland Cowboys – Played 12, Won 6, Lost 6 (50% win percentage)
• St George-Illawarra Dragons – Played 14, Won 7, Lost 7 (50% win percentage)
• Brisbane Broncos – Played 31, Won 15, Lost 16 (48.4% win percentage)
• South Sydney Rabbitohs – Played 19, Won 9, Lost 10 (47.4% win percentage)
• Newcastle Knights – Played 7, Won 3, Lost 4 (42.9% win percentage)
• Canberra Raiders – Played 5, Won 2, Lost 3 (40% win percentage)
• Gold Coast Titans – Played 5, Won 2, Lost 3 (40% win percentage)
• Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles – Played 11, Won 4, Lost 7 (36.4% win percentage)
• New Zealand Warriors – Played 1, Won 0, Lost 1 (0% win percentage)

Best Record Away From Home

Embed from Getty Images

The two most dominant teams of the last decade are in the top three sides winning away from home on a Thursday.

Out of the Panthers 10 wins on Thursday away matches, three have come against the Broncos at Suncorp Stadium. Melbourne’s record is slightly tarnished with their record against the Eels at CommBank Stadium on Thursday’s at three losses from four games.

New Zealand Warriors only Thursday game came in 2019 on ANZAC day where Stephen Kearney’s men went down 13-12 to the Storm at AAMI Park.

• Dolphins – Played 1, Won 1, Lost (100% win percentage)
• Melbourne Storm – Played 22, Won 15, Lost 7 (68.2% win percentage)
• Penrith Panthers – Played 15, Won 10, Lost 5 (66.7% win percentage)
• Canberra Raiders – Played 7, Won 4, Lost 3 (57.1% win percentage)
• North Queensland Cowboys – Played 14, Won 8, Lost 6 (57.1% win percentage)
• South Sydney Rabbitohs – Played 25, Won 14, Lost 11 (56% win percentage)
• Sydney Roosters – Played 17, Won 9, Lost 8 (52.9% win percentage)
• Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks – Played 8, Won 4, Lost 4 (50% win percentage)
• Parramatta Eels – Played 12, Won 6, Lost 6 (50% win percentage)
• Brisbane Broncos – Played 29, Won 10, Lost 19 (34.5% win percentage)
• Gold Coast Titans – Played 3, Won 1, Lost 2 (33.3% win percentage)
• St George-Illawarra Dragons – Played 9, Won 2, Lost 7 (22.2% win percentage)
• Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs – Played 16, Won 3, Lost 13 (18.8% win percentage)
• Wests Tigers – Played 11, Won 2, Lost 9 (18.2% win percentage)
• Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles – Played 10, Won 1, Lost 9 (10% win percentage)
• New Zealand Warriors – Played 1, Won 0, Lost 1 (0% win percentage)
• Newcastle Knights – Played 2, Won 0, Lost 2 (0% win percentage)

Overall Best Record

Melbourne top the win percentages on Thursday football winning at above 80%.

The Dolphins are next best having only played five games. Their crosstown rival in the Broncos have the most Thursday games and yet have a poor win percentage of 41.7%.

The Bulldogs and Sea Eagles don’t have a liking for Thursday games, with the Tigers and Titans above them even though those two teams have the second worst and worst win percentages of NRL sides in the last decade.

Embed from Getty Images

• Melbourne Storm – Played 37, Won 30, Lost 7 (81.1% win percentage)
• Dolphins – Played 5, Won 4, Lost 1 (80% win percentage)
• Penrith Panthers – Played 28, Won 19, Lost 9 (67.9% win percentage)
• Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks – Played 19, Won 11, Lost 8 (57.9% win percentage)
• Sydney Roosters – Played 33, Won 18, Lost 15 (54.5% win percentage)
• North Queensland Cowboys – Played 26, Won 14, Lost 12 (53.8% win percentage)
• Parramatta Eels – Played 30, Won 16, Lost 14 (53.3% win percentage)
• South Sydney Rabbitohs – Played 44, Won 23, Lost 21 (52.3% win percentage)
• Canberra Raiders – Played 12, Won 6, Lost 6 (50% win percentage)
• Brisbane Broncos – Played 60, Won 25, Lost 35 (41.7% win percentage)
• St George-Illawarra Dragons – Played 23, Won 9, Lost 14 (39.1% win percentage)
• Gold Coast Titans – Played 8, Won 3, Lost 5 (37.5% win percentage)
• Wests Tigers – Played 19, Won 7, Lost 12 (36.8% win percentage)
• Newcastle Knights – Played 9, Won 3, Lost 6 (33.3% win percentage)
• Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs – Played 28, Won 9, Lost 19 (32.1% win percentage)
• Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles – Played 21, Won 5, Lost 16 (23.8% win percentage)
• New Zealand Warriors – Played 2, Won 0, Lost 2 (0% win percentage)

2025 Breakdown of Thursday Night Games

Here’s the number of games each NRL team will play on a Thursday in 2025. The Storm and Panthers play a quarter of their games on Thursday, while the Dolphins will play as many Thursday games in 2025 as they have in their short two-year history in the NRL. Titans, Warriors and Tigers will not feature in 2025 Thursday fixtures.

• Melbourne Storm – 6 (2 home)
• Penrith Panthers – 6 (2 home)
• Dolphins – 5 (2 home)
• Brisbane Broncos – 4 (2 home)
• Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs – 4 (2 home)
• St George-Illawarra Dragons – 3 (0 home)
• Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks – 2 (1 home)
• Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles – 2 (1 home)
• Newcastle Knights – 2 (2 home)
• Parramatta Eels – 2 (2 home)
• South Sydney Rabbitohs – 2 (2 home)
• Sydney Roosters – 2 (2 home)
• Canberra Raiders – 1 (1 home)
• North Queensland Cowboys – 1 (0 home)
• Gold Coast Titans – 0
• New Zealand Warriors – 0
• Wests Tigers – 0

Conclusion

Thursday football usually provides teams with an opportunity to get the first points of the new round and benefit from (in most circumstances) having at least a seven-day break.

The two teams who are king at Thursday football are the Storm and Panthers who win at least two in three fixtures, while the Dolphins may be heading in the same direction but with a lesser sample. All three teams feature in the most Thursday games in 2025.

For Wests Tigers and Gold Coast Titans fans, you are probably happy to avoid Thursday matches in 2025 given their win records are around one in every three.