Club-by-Club: The Best
The 2025 finals series was one of the most eventful of the NRL era. Two of the top-three sides on the ladder - Canberra Raiders (first) and Canterbury Bulldogs (third) - exited in straight sets. Brisbane Broncos won ten of their last 12 games to finish fourth (W15, L9), then erased three double-digit deficits to win their first premiership in 19 years.
Melbourne Storm were premiership favourites for much of the season after overtaking Canterbury. They settled into second behind Canberra and had reasonably comfortable finals wins over Cronulla Sharks and Canterbury to make another grand final. Cronulla and Penrith Panthers threatened from outside the top four, but the Sharks and Panthers lost their preliminary finals.
Penrith's golden run ended with four straight premierships from five grand finals, but the way they rallied after a poor start to the season (coming from last place in Round 13 with nine straight wins) suggests their dynasty isn't finished yet. Cronulla finally showed they can compete in September after beating the Sydney Roosters and Canberra in the finals.
Brisbane's finals run will soon be the stuff of legend: they trailed Canberra 28-12 in the qualifying final (winning 29-28 after 94 minutes), lagged behind Penrith 14-0 in the preliminary final, and trailed Melbourne 22-12 in the grand final. Regardless of what you think about Reece Walsh and his on-field or off-field antics, he engineered Brisbane's comebacks and established himself as one of the game's marquee names (if he wasn’t already). For all their consistency and high standards under Craig Bellamy, Melbourne lost consecutive grand finals for the first time in their history. Can they win one more before Bellamy retires or moves on?
Canberra's fall from grace was stunning: they were the fairytale team as they swept to their first minor premiership since 1990, but their lack of finals experience and the pressure of expectation came back to bite them. They had the Broncos qualifying final won twice: firstly at full time before a harsh but fair penalty against Zac Hosking allowed Walsh to tie the scores, and then late in extra time when Jamal Fogarty scored, only for the Bunker to find another harsh but fair knock on against Jed Stuart.
Despite those decisions, they blew a 28-12 lead as Walsh (returning from the controversial headbutt sin bin) started a run of three tries in seven minutes. Canterbury was in the top four for most of the season, but a late-season slump (W2, L4 in their last six regular season games) and crucial injuries hurt their premiership hopes.
A special mention must go to Mark Nawaqanitawase. Playing his first full NRL season since crossing over from rugby union, he won the Ken Irvine Medal (as the NRL's leading tryscorer) with 24 tries and put his rugby sevens skills to good use for many of them. His try against Canterbury in Round 11 won the Dally M Try of the Year, and he would have been a big chance for Rookie of the Year were it not for a mid-season rule change that thwarted him. Making Kevin Walters' Australian squad for the Ashes tour as a potential debutant says everything about the impact he made in his debut season.
Club-by-Club: The Worst
It's appropriate that the bottom two teams (Newcastle Knights and Gold Coast Titans) both lost their head coaches: Adam O'Brien and Des Hasler. Hasler's press conference after the Titans lost to the Warriors in Round 25, during which he fielded some hostile questions from journalists and emphasised that David Fifita was staying at the Gold Coast, was nothing short of bizarre.
Despite this, the Titans won their final game against Wests Tigers to offload the wooden spoon to the Knights. Newcastle's points differential of -300 (having scored only 338 points – by far the fewest in the NRL) was a big reason why they collected their fifth spoon.
Though Shane Flanagan had plenty to say about refereeing decisions not going their way, St George Illawarra Dragons (15th) also lost ten games by eight points or less.
While South Sydney Rabbitohs finished 14th, they had the genuine excuse of being destroyed by injuries, to the point they were fielding NSW Cup-standard teams, with nine straight losses putting them in spoon territory. Three wins from their last four games was encouraging as they move into 2026.
Club-by-Club: The Rest
The New Zealand Warriors (sixth) were on track for a top four finish before Luke Metcalf’s injury, but the “Wahs” showed they can be a force when Metcalf returns.
Sydney Roosters (eighth) defied the key injury to Sam Walker (late in 2024) to make the finals, but an elimination final loss was a disappointing end after winning five of their last six regular season games.
The Dolphins (ninth) were so close to their first finals appearance, and they played some exciting footy at times, passing 50 points four times.
Manly Sea Eagles (tenth) and North Queensland Cowboys (12th) were frustratingly inconsistent this season. Both sides showed moments of attacking brilliance, negated by fragile defence.
Avoiding a fourth-straight wooden spoon was a win for the Wests Tigers (13th) and they showed genuine improvement with nine wins – their best return since 2021.
The 'Miracle at Mudgee' was one of 2025's standout games
It takes a special game of footy to be crowned with an unforgettable moniker, and the Miracle at Mudgee had that in spades. Despite the inconvenient Friday 6:00pm timeslot, this Round 25 game had plenty at stake: Penrith could have leapt above a fading Warriors into the top-four and Canberra could get closer to the minor premiership and test themselves against the four-time premiers.
It was 16-16 heading into Golden Point and an already fantastic game was about to get better. In the 83rd minute, Nathan Cleary lined up a seemingly simple field goal shot. Raiders fans would be forgiven for thinking it was game over, but Cleary hit the post, Jed Stuart regathered the footy and passed to Ethan Strange, who broke down the left sideline and passed inside to Kaeo Weekes.
While you could argue that Canberra was lucky, they took their unexpected opportunity, and their exciting attack did the rest.
The two most frustrating crackdowns of the year
It wouldn't be a footy season without a 'crackdown', and two in particular stood out in 2025. The first was the roll ball crackdown early in the season. It was forgotten a few weeks later but came back at unexpected occasions during the season.
The other was related to high contact, with an unusually high 18 sin bins overshadowing the usually prestigious and celebrated ANZAC Round . Fortunately, the NRL appeared to take notice of the outrage amongst the media and fanbase and halted it immediately. While keeping the game safe is important (especially when it comes to head contact), randomly timed crackdowns and interpretation changes only confuse and frustrate everyone.
The Lachlan Galvin saga dragged on for far too long
With no end-of-season trade period or draft like the AFL, NRL fans are used to players signing for new clubs up to 12 months in advance.
But the Lachlan Galvin Saga sunk into soap opera-levels of absurdity. It started around Easter, with Galvin wanting out of the Wests Tigers. Two months - and a lot of nonsense - later, Galvin debuted for Canterbury against Parramatta in the King's Birthday game.
But the drama wasn't over yet as Galvin's arrival caused a reshuffle for the Bulldogs (with Toby Sexton going to Super League and Reed Mahoney signing with North Queensland) that arguably hurt their momentum and saw them fall out of the top two. While not solely Galvin's fault, the disruption caused by his arrival didn't help, though it may have long-term benefits once Galvin gets a full off-season under Cameron Ciraldo.
Galvin is not the first - and won’t be the last - player to switch clubs mid-season. But why did he do it? One theory is that because he left the Wests Tigers, it gave certain journalists another chance to sink the boot into their favourite punching bag. Another theory is that his manager Isaac Moses was the mastermind behind the move, with his feud with Benji Marshall a big motivator.
Or was it perhaps because Galvin showed promise last season and became a headline name immediately? It ended well for the Tigers, though: the drama solidified their focus on players who are committed to the club (with Tallyn Da Silva moving to Parramatta later in the season), and they rallied to avoid a fourth-straight wooden spoon.
The Vegas opener has found its feet
In its second season, the Las Vegas season-opening venture is starting to pay off, with two NRL games (Canberra 30-8 NZ Warriors, Penrith 28-22 Cronulla), a women’s Test match (Australia 90-4 England), and one Super League game (Wigan 48-24 Warrington).
Unfortunately, the women’s Test was horribly one-sided and was subsequently dropped for 2026: a women's State of Origin or a rematch of the NRLW Grand Final would have been a fairer representation of the women’s game. The early cynicism towards the concept has been replaced by a party atmosphere as plenty of Australian, New Zealand, and UK fans experience the Vegas atmosphere and watch their favourite teams.
For now, three games seem to be the sweet spot for Vegas. But with the quality of NRL match-ups starting to drop (The lowly trio of St George Illawarra, Newcastle and North Queensland will join Canterbury in 2026), will interest be maintained among locals and neutral fans? We'll soon find out.
To rest or not to rest?
The debate around the timing of resting players came up again in 2026, and it again amounted to nothing.
After losing in Mudgee, Penrith - knowing they were going to miss the top four - rested 16 players against Canterbury (and predictably lost). Melbourne's resting policy was more spread out, while Canberra gave 11 first graders a week off in the final round against the Dolphins. Penrith's unusually high number of rested players sparked talks about a possible 'Wildcard Weekend' (seventh vs tenth and eighth vs ninth) in an expanded competition, or perhaps adopting the AFL's pre-finals bye week that could be on the chopping block. That said, the chatter never made it out of the 24/7 news cycle of rugby league media.
While some may complain that playing reserve grade-standard sides robs fans in attendance of seeing the best players, it's a long season and teams who have earned the right to rest players should be allowed to. Canterbury went the other way, playing a full-strength side in the Round 27 game against Cronulla, and they paid the price with crucial injuries.
Even if a pre-finals bye was introduced, it may encourage teams further as players get two weeks off instead of one. The Wildcard Weekend likely won't solve the problem of players being rested for home and away games as teams between seventh to tenth may rest players to ensure they're fully fit for the wildcard finals anyway.
The NRL chose its 18th and 19th franchises
After a lot of debate and back-and-forth negotiating between Rugby League Central and state/federal governments, the next two NRL expansion clubs were finally announced: the Perth Bears (2027) and Papua New Guinea (2028). The Perth side went through a lot of drama prior to acquiring its licence, including some opposition from the Aussie Rules-focused local media (such as a vociferous campaign from the West Australian newspaper), and various ownership issues.
But the Bears' return is a wonderful story. It not only sees Perth return to the Australian rugby league scene after nearly 30 years, but it's also being hailed as the first grade return of the North Sydney Bears. While the majority of home games will be in Perth, there should be at least one game at North Sydney Oval, which will see Norths fans either drag their old jerseys out of the cupboards or maybe wear the new Perth Bears gear (likely to be the Bears’ red, blue, and white with a dash of WA gold).
The PNG bid has a lot of logistical and political issues (far too many to go into here), but even the biggest cynic can't deny that PNG fans adore rugby league. But the two big questions are: how quickly can a team of PNG locals be competitive in the NRL, and how many overseas NRL stars would be willing to live in Port Moresby?