Betfred Super League sets key dates for 2023 - season opening round and Grand Final revealed

The Betfred Super League has confirmed the key dates for the 2023 season, which will kick off mid-February and conclude with the Grand Final at Old Trafford on Saturday, October 14.

The 27-round regular season will get under way on Thursday, February 16, with the last round of matches scheduled for Thursday, September 21 to Sunday, September 24.

The play-offs begin the following week with the eliminators on Friday, September 29, and Saturday, September 30, followed by the semi-finals on Friday, October 6, and Saturday, October 7.

🏉 Meanwhile, international prop forward Luke Thompson has hinted that his stint  in the NRL is far from over.

The 27-year-old enforcer, who left his boyhood club, St Helens, in June 2020, to join Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs, said: " We’ll see how things go but I’ve still got unfinished business Down Under.

"We struggled last season but the competition in the NRL is tougher than Super League and I’m looking forward to the challenges ahead."

But before then there is the small matter of trying to help England win the World Cup and the former Bold Miner junior will get a hit out in Friday night’s warm-up friendly against Fiji at Salford’s AJ Bell Stadium .

Thompson, who missed part of the NRL season after returning home due to family reasons, added:" It will be a chance for us to open our lungs before the important matches get underway."

His only regret is that old club mate and fellow prop Alex Walmsley is ruled out of the tournament with injury.

"We will definitely miss Big Al and I was devastated when I discovered he had been forced to withdraw from the England squad due to injury," said the former St Helens Grand Final winner.