A new year has arrived, and NRL clubs will be back from their Christmas breaks to ramp up pre-season training in the next week.

The final run to the season often brings with it heightened intensity and discussion as fans ready themselves for the new campaign.

This year could on another level altogether with the season opening in Las Vegas a week ahead of schedule.

Expectations are a funny thing though. Every year, there are teams who will go well beyond what they were expected to do, and others who fall a long way short of where they were supposed to be.

But what exactly are those expectations for all 17 NRL teams in 2024?

Here is what your team needs to do to earn a pass in 2024.

4. Dragons: Avoid bottom four

The Dragons come into the 2024 season as undoubtedly one of the favourites to take out the wooden spoon, despite the fact they have a new coach at the helm with premiership-winning experience from his previous time at the Cronulla Sharks.

Despite that, Flanagan has been open and very honest in public about the shortcomings of the Dragons and why the club have struggled as much as they have in recent years.

And a large part of that, whether fans, administrators and the players themselves want to admit it or not is down to the playing group available.

They have been hit hard in recent weeks too with Talatau Amone deregistered, that coming after the joint-venture allowed Jayden Sullivan to walk to the Wests Tigers in the middle of the 2023 campaign.

The Dragons, like every team, will start the season wanting to play finals football, but in truth, avoiding the wooden spoon will be a surprise to some, and avoiding the bottom four should be treated the pass mark.