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.
16. Raiders: Top eight
The Raiders will be one of the more intriguing teams to follow in 2024, purely because it's difficult to know exactly what to expect out of them.
The Raiders, one on foot, significantly over achieved by making the finals in 2023. They had a negative for and against, and it's difficult to remember more than a few games throughout the course of the campaign where they properly dominated their opposition.
But then, you could also argue they overachieved. They weren't expected for greatness prior to the season, but at one point, through grinding out wins, they were looking as if they were going to be a show at forcing their way into the final top four.
It's that, even with the departure of Jack Wighton, which suggests that anything less than a top eight finish in 2024 will be a failure, although most clubs could probably point to the same and suggest that finals are the bare minimum expectation.
