Canberra Raiders could play Melbourne Storm in Melbourne when NRL resumes

They will play the Storm on May 30 at 7.35pm and will then face the Newcastle Knights the following week on June 7 at 4.05pm.

Venues are yet to be determined for either game, but with the AFL confirming their restart on June 11 The Canberra Times revealed it opened the door for the Storm to play their home games in Melbourne.

While the Storm were pushing to stay in Victoria, the Raiders-Knights clash will likely be in Sydney.

That's despite the ACT government already clearing the way for the Green Machine to play at Canberra Stadium.

The NRL expected to have the venues for rounds three and four finalised early next week, with the rest of the draw - as well as the State of Origin dates - announced by next Friday.

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Raiders chief executive Don Furner was unsure when games would be played in the ACT, but said they would push for a return to Canberra Stadium when the second block of games were announced.

That could see them playing at home again in July, August or even later in a season that will conclude with the NRL grand final on October 25.

"Some of those teams we might play twice. For example, we might play Melbourne twice," Furner said.

"We would expect to be playing them here in Canberra by then. We understand the first block of games will be Sydney and Brisbane ... but we will be pushing hard for the next block to get home games.

"That's a good question [when the next block of games is]. Don't know the answer to that, but we didn't expect to have games here in June. We'll go from there."

But the fact the Raiders' first two games will either be in Melbourne or Sydney means they don't have to worry about their three stars who haven't been vaccinated for influenza.

Josh Papalii, Joe Tapine and Sia Soliola have all signed the NRL's waiver, but were yet to get the flu shot.

The Queensland government said all players needed to have the flu shot to either train or play in their state.

Furner said he would cross that bridge if and when he needed to.

He felt the Raiders' recent rivalry with the Storm was the reason they'd drawn them in the NRL's resumption.

Canberra narrowly beat the Storm twice late last season on their way to the grand final, the second of which ended Melbourne's year in the preliminary final.

It was when they controversially won 12-10 with Storm winger Suliasi Vunivalu incorrectly ruled to have gone into touch when Melbourne had one last roll of the dice for victory.

The Raiders will look to continue their winning start to the season, which saw them beat the Gold Coast Titans and the New Zealand Warriors in the opening two rounds before the coronavirus shut down the competition.

"[It's] possibly why they picked it because of the way we finished the season with those two high-rating games and went to the wire in both of those games," Furner said.

"There's no massive home-ground advantage without crowds, but travel is the big one."

NRL acting chief executive Andrew Abdo said they would reveal the stadiums that would be used early next week, but confirmed they wouldn't be confined to just one Sydney stadium.

He also said they could use regional and metropolitan grounds, although it's believed Canberra won't be one of them.

Townsville and Gosford were reportedly in the mix.

"The decision around stadiums will be made and announced next week," Abdo said.

"We're still working through site inspections, we're running through logistics, the security and medical protocols related to the choices of stadium.

"We've always said all along we'll be rationalising where we play. Particularly while we don't have crowds and that will be finalised early next week and will be announced together with the full draw at the back end of next week."