NRL

A Dane Gagai try with less than two minutes remaining kept alive Newcastle's NRL finals hopes as the Knights edged out Cronulla 18-14 at Remondis Stadium on Saturday night.

Melbourne have marked their turf as defending NRL champions by seeing off fellow competition heavyweights South Sydney 26-8 at AAMI Park.

Canterbury survived some Josh Dugan magic to maintain their charge towards the NRL finals with a 39-20 come from behind win over St George Illawarra on Monday night.

South Sydney have bounced back immediately to winning ways with a 32-4 NRL thrashing of Gold Coast on Saturday night.

Canterbury's NRL premiership aspirations could be rocked by an ankle syndesmosis injury to Ben Barba sustained in Friday's facile 40-12 win over struggling Parramatta.

Brisbane centre Justin Hodges orchestrated a crucial 18-16 win over North Queensland on Friday night to keep the Broncos' slim NRL finals hopes alive.

Hodges put on the winning try with just under seven minutes to go and veteran five-eighth Scott Prince cooly slotted the conversion to seal a dramatic comeback victory in Townsville.

Manly have returned to the NRL's top-four while putting a further dent in the finals hopes of the North Queensland Cowboys after a 34-14 win in Townsville.