NRL season 2025 has been good fun so far, with some teams flying out of the blocks, others stalling at the starting line and a few hurtling to the ground but yet to open their parachutes…
Enough mixed metaphors, let’s take a big talking points breath together at the conclusion of round 13 to hand out some well-earned midseason grades.
In current ladder order…
Canterbury Bulldogs: 9 wins 2 losses 2 byes
Grade: A
Clearly the best team to this point. Cameron Ciraldo’s squad have locked in the defensive structures that started paying dividends halfway through last year.
The attack does what it needs to at a range of different speeds, they play consistently, are unperturbed no matter the game situation (or their injury situation) and like all good sides, are incredibly difficult to break down.
The only thing worth noting is they’ve got one bye left, so there’s a lot of footy ahead in these last three months.
Canberra Raiders: 10 wins 3 losses no byes
Grade: A-
This season’s surprise. No one predicted this, except for irrational Raiders fans. But Ricky Stuart has been shaping this squad for the last couple of seasons and the investments are paying off – young talent like Ethan Strange and Owen Pattie, more gems from the UK in Matty Nicholson and Morgan Smithies, helped by career best work from Hudson Young and Ata Mariota.
There’s a bit to clean up in defence because teams can skirt around their squeezed setup pretty easily from time to time, and they do love giving away a set restart.
But as they say in the classics, ball don’t lie – Canberra sit comfortably in second place and have all three byes in their pocket, that’s six free competition points.
New Zealand Warriors: 9 wins 3 losses 1 bye
Grade: A-
They just keep winning. Third on the table with a for and against of +5.
Halfback Luke Metcalf leads the Dally M voting as it goes behind closed doors, their pack has been boosted by recruit James Fisher-Harris although a potential long-term knee injury to Mitch Barnett will throw a spanner into the gears. While the attack has had moments of impotence, their defence has worked to order.
If you wanted to get finicky you could say their losses have been to top four opposition (Canberra x2 and Melbourne) and only three wins have come against teams currently in the top eight (Manly, North Queensland and St George Illawarra), but let’s not overdose on panic when there’s no need – the Warriors are setting up their season nicely.
Mitchell Barnett. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)
Melbourne Storm: 7 wins 4 losses 2 byes
Grade: B
In true Storm fashion we’ve seen them at their irresistible best (64-0 over Wests Tigers) and confounding worst (14-8 loss to St George Illawarra).
Even so, many still have Melbourne as the pick to win it all. As talking points stresses to point out, Melbourne are one of those teams who focus their effort to finish top four. Regular season play is just a necessary task and right now they’re very much idling in neutral.
Cronulla Sharks: 7 wins 5 losses 1 bye
Grade: B-
They’re doing what they always do – really high quality wins offset by performances that boggle the mind. Take their last three games; a quality win at Brookvale over Manly, a great win over Melbourne, then getting their doors blown off by the Roosters when they started as favourites.
Having said that, the Sharks are still in the hunt for a top four finish. They need to string a few wins together to break free of the bottom of the eight.
North Queensland Cowboys: 5 wins 5 losses 1 draw 2 byes
Grade: C+
They’re about where they should be for what we’ve seen so far, but the Cowboys’ next three games against the Storm, Dolphins and Roosters will shape how high or low they’ll go.
Todd Payten bringing Jaxson Purdue into the halves alongside Tom Dearden was a gutsy call that looks like paying off, and Scott Drinkwater is playing his best for some time. North Queensland should play finals, but remain unpredictable…
Tom Dearden scores a try against Wests Tigers. (Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)
Manly Sea Eagles: 6 wins 6 losses 1 bye
Grade: C
Regular readers of your weekly talking points will know how close I am to having had my fill of these Sea Eagles. It’s because they’re unreliable – they’ll win by double figures and be amazing, or they’ll look like a bunch of blokes introduced to each other before they ran onto the field.
Usually teams who mix results like this get called ‘mercurial’ and might peel off 5-6 week runs that end deep in the finals, but this team doesn’t threaten to do that at all. Plenty will point to the Daly Cherry-Evans situation as the reason they’re all over the place but I disagree – this is just what they are.
St George Illawarra Dragons: 5 wins 6 losses 2 byes
Grade: C+
The Dragons are tough to play against, they’ll fight from minute one to minute 80. They’ll be in the contest against the mid-table but are capable of reaching up to snag a scalp, like they did against Melbourne.
Shane Flanagan’s recruiting has continued to focus on tried and true talent like Clint Gutherson, David Klemmer and Val Holmes, but there’s some pretty good youngsters like Lyhkan King-Togia, Nathan Lawson and Loko Pasifiki Tonga starting to get their shot.
South Sydney Rabbitohs: 6 wins 6 losses 1 bye
Grade: B+
In the face of incredible long term injuries to some of their better players, Souths have fought really hard to stay in touch with the top eight. The wheels only really came off a couple times against Canterbury and Newcastle, but that one can be excused because the bunnies basically had barely enough fit players to field a basketball side.
Jye Gray has excelled at fullback, Jamie Humphreys was good at halfback before getting hurt and Wayne Bennett has yet again got a club that will compete no matter what.
The Dolphins: 5 wins 7 losses 1 bye
Grade: C+
This is a tricky one. I would have hoped the Dolphins would have been a little better places by this stage, but their 0-4 start set them back. They built back though and things looked abundant when they smacked Melbourne 42-22 in round seven, their third successive win, but then that they copped another four straight losses.
Injuries haven’t helped, particularly in the forwards. But the Dolphins are getting some really good play from rugby league’s next big thing Isaiya Katoa and ‘veterans’ like Jamayne Isaako, Herbie Farnworth and Kulikefu Finefeuiaki.
Gehamat Shibasaki celebrates scoring for the Broncos against the Dolphins. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Brisbane Broncos: 5 wins 7 losses 1 bye
Grade: D
It feels like a decade ago the Broncos were 4-1. They opened the season putting 50 on the Roosters, they even trounced the ladder leading Canterbury 42-18.
But Michael Maguire’s squad are floundering, dropping four straight games since that Bulldogs win.
Brisbane haven’t won since April and aren’t in the bottom three because of two free points for a round 12 bye.
Ben Hunt and Adam Reynolds didn’t work in the halves, Ezra Mam’s return hasn’t made a notable difference. They’re sloppy in attack and all over the place in defence.
They play the hopeless Gold Coast twice in their next five games, but that bookends games against Cronulla, New Zealand and Canterbury. It doesn’t look great.
Sydney Roosters: 5 wins 7 losses 1 bye
Grade: B-
It’s a rebuild year for Trent Robinson and the results are streaky, but the green shoots are very clear for all to see.
Sandon Smith’s third year in the NRL is high quality, Hugo Savala has been a revelation opposite him in the halves, Robert Toia is a fantastic talent at right centre and while Wallaby convert Mark Nawaqanitawase has more than a few clangers in his game, he’s scoring a bunch of tries. Prop Naufahu Whyte is also growing into his relatively young career.
Will the rumoured arrival of 37-year-old halfback Daly Cherry-Evans make things even better, or pull the handbrake on all this progress?
Victor Radley also continues to spend more time in HIA protocols – I repeat the talking point that he needs to take a serious look at how much more of this he should be doing.
Wests Tigers: 5 wins 7 losses 1 bye
Grade: C
The Tigers have already beaten their win total for 2024 and there’s undeniable on field progress.
They’re much more potent in attack (admittedly from a very low base), but defence is letting them down and the 64-0 disaster in Melbourne left a lasting impact on their for and against.
Sure, they lost Lachlan Galvin, but I doubt that’ll be as much of a difference maker as many think.
Lachlan Galvin. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Penrith Panthers 4 wins 7 losses 1 draw 1 bye
Grade: D
The premiers’ first half has been nothing short of disastrous. Bad losses and uncharacteristic defence as Ivan Cleary juggled his resources to see who can maintain those Panther structures that have been so effective.
They’ve given us a glimpse of the hard edged, impenetrable defence and suffocating attack, but it’s been too few and far between. But they’re close enough to make finals if they can play a little more consistently.
Newcastle Knights: 4 wins 8 losses 1 bye
Grade: F
Nothing short of putrid, Newcastle this year. They’re averaging 13.25 points per game and half their wins have come against injury and Origin depleted opposition. The only thing saving them from dragging along the bottom is a relatively competent defence.
The gap between Newcastle’s top tier talent and the rest of the squad is far too big. Fletcher Sharpe has been fun to watch, but hyped talent like Leo Thompson have been really disappointing, and now he’s out suspended for four weeks.
The most ominous part? Newcastle have looked this bad and have only played three games against teams currently in the top eight…
Parramatta Eels: 4 wins 8 losses 1 bye
Grade: C-
What a difference a halfback makes. Since Mitch Moses’ return the Eels are much more competitive, but there were already signs of life after a diabolical start to Jason Ryles’ life as head coach.
They’re another team in a rebuild and should be seen as such. While their attacking setups are starting to embed a little better the defence is still a work in progress – they’ve only kept their opposition under 20 points four times and they’ve copped 50+ twice.
I’d still back Parra over a couple of the teams above them, though.
Gold Coast Titans: 3 wins 8 losses 2 byes
Grade: F
An incredibly disappointing team. A premiership winning coach and State of Origin talent across the squad but still the Titans just can’t win games.
What’s most frustrating about the Gold Coast is they have competitive patches every week where they could work themselves into winning positions, but they always, always find ways to throw it away.
Des Hasler is reportedly secure in his role but the question about the Titans remains the same as it has been for years – how is this talent playing so poorly?
NRLHQ
Grade: D
A high contact “crackdown” debacle, sloppy meia management in the lead-up to announcing the Perth team, forcing North Sydney into the expansion team, barely any match reports available on their website, two points for a bye, disgraceful radio coverage, and it STILL takes them hours after the last game of the round to update the league ladder online – literal pub grade comps can do it live.
Other than that, NRLHQ are having a blinder so far.
How are your assessments look at the halfway point, Roarers?
AJ Mithenhttps://https://ift.tt/itnPz0b 13 Talking Points: Mid-year report card – NRL gets a D, only three teams earn an A with plenty heading for failure
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