KEY POINTS OF THE NRL DRAW:
* There is a reduction of 31 five-day turnarounds to 19 in the first 20 rounds
* South Sydney come off worst, picking up four five-day turnarounds. The Sydney Roosters have three, while St George Illawarra, Parramatta and the Warriors have two
* Brisbane, Canterbury, Penrith, Canberra, Manly and Melbourne have one five-day turnaround, while North Queensland, Newcastle, Cronulla, Wests Tigers and Gold Coast have none
* The NRL has introduced a Friday 6pm (AEST) game, with Sydney’s traffic to get its first test in round one when Canterbury host Melbourne at Belmore
* Matches will be played in each mainland capital city, as well as Dunedin, Waikato, Bathurst, NSW central coast and Cairns
* Brisbane have gone from Friday night kings to dominating the Thursday night fixtures. They play six games on a Thursday in the first 20 rounds
* The representative weekend remains between rounds nine and 10
* State of Origin falls on May 31 (Suncorp), June 21 (ANZ) and July 12 (Suncorp)
* Melbourne will lose their Origin stars for two games with only a bye before the first interstate clash
* Crowd-puller Jarryd Hayne won’t play in Sydney until round eight, when Cronula host Gold Coast on April 22
* Canberra’ free-to-air coverage has increased to four games in the first 20 rounds after 2016’s success
* Two matches will be played on Anzac Day: Dragons v Roosters and Storm v Warriors
10 GAMES TO WATCH:
* Round 1 – South Sydney v Wests Tigers: Robbie Farah’s rivalry with Jason Taylor will be reignited on the first Friday night of the competition
* Round 1 – St George Illawarra v Penrith: Mitch Rein has a chance to excite for Penrith against the “boring” Dragons at Kogarah
* Round 3 – Gold Coast v Parramatta: Jarryd Hayne meets Parramatta for the first time. Eels fans will have to wait until round 24 at ANZ Stadium to host him for the first time.
* Round 4 – Souths v Sydney Roosters: Luke Keary takes on South Sydney and Russell Crowe for the first time
* Round 6 – Melbourne v Cronulla: The grand final re-match gives Melbourne the chance to exact some revenge on the Sharks
* Round 6 – Brisbane v North Queensland: Their clashes have been the pick of the draw for the past two seasons. They then close the season in Round 26
* Round 6 – Warriors v Parramatta: The Eels get their first crack at Kieran Foran in round six in Auckland. He returns to face the blue-and-gold army in round 13, but avoids another return to Brookvale as Manly host the Warriors in Perth
* Round 8 – Roosters v St George Illawarra: Anzac Day clashes are always thrillers and 2017’s could have some extra spice after Trent Robinson accused the Dragons of taking dives last year
* Round 10 – Manly v Newcastle: Jamie Buhrer has the chance to show Trent Barrett why he shouldn’t have forced him out of Manly
* Round 16 – North Queensland v Penrith: James Tamou returns to Townsville just days after Origin II
