The two leading teams in the regular season, Canberra Vikings and Queensland Country, went on to play in the championship final.
The deciding match, played at Viking Park in Canberra, was won 42–28 by Queensland Country to claim their first NRC title.
[2] The nine teams for the season included three from New South Wales, two from Queensland, and one each from Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, Western Australia, and Fiji: Home match venues scheduled for the 2017 NRC season: Two of the NRC matches each weekend were broadcast live via Fox Sports, with the remaining matches shown on the Fox Sports streaming platform.
The trialed changes to the point scoring system adopted in previous years were not continued for the 2017 NRC season, and scoring reverted to the standard values of five points for a try, two for a conversion and three for a penalty or drop goal.
The top four sides in the regular season advanced to the semifinals of the knock-out stage, which was followed by the final to decide the National Rugby Championship title.