2023 has been a year full of incredible rugby league stories.

When you have a grand final for the ages, sacked coaches - including one at Origin level - a new team entering the competition and big changes across the competition, that is hardly going to come as a surprise to many.

But what were the stories that defined 2023?

Here are the top ten.

5. The Rabbitohs dramatic fadeout

We touched on this earlier, but the Rabbitohs' dramatic fadeout after leading the competition almost halfway through was worthy of its own storyline.

The Rabbitohs, under Jason Demetriou and with misfiring players left, right and centre, were simply put, terrible during the second half of the competition.

The first half of the year saw the club work out defensive strategies that simply worked. The second half of the year saw that go out the back window as their average points conceded per game more than doubled after Round 11 to the end of the season.

That wasn't the only problem in the Redfern-based burrow though. South Sydney had coaching staff changes at the end, rumours of disharmony through the middle and big questions still left to be answered over the likes of starting halfback Lachlan Ilias.

The roster was too good to miss the finals, and even more so from where they were, but they did, and 2024 now shapes as a moving year for Souths where things either turn a corner, or heads start rolling.