With the off-season comes the usual troupes.
Talk of expansion, the divisions talk, player movements and of course post-season rankings.
Today we're here to focus on the rankings. More specifically, the NRL five-eighth rankings from 2023.
Please keep in mind that these rankings are based only on 2023. Both NRL and Origin performances will be taken into account. Not specifically who is the best five-eighth outright.
Before we start, I'm going to take a moment to answer some of the usual questions to appear in the comments to any sort of rankings.
Do I even watch football? Yes, every game.
Are my eyes painted on? No. That would be funny though.
Who am I? Just a fan.
This was by far the more difficult to rank, thus far. It's also the list I'm expecting to cop more grief for in the comments. That's ultimately what it's about though, right?
With that said, below are the top 10 NRL five-eighths based purely and totally on 2023:
Honourable mentions: Jack Wighton
1. Ezra Mam
Earlier I said the top four stood out from the rest. The proceeding three were all very close but one stood above even those stars. Brisbane's Ezra Mam!
Mam was nothing short of magnificent in 2023. It's scary to think that he's still only 20 year's of age.
Across 25 games for the Broncs he crossed for a huge 18 tries, set up a further nine, made 10 line break assists and ran for almost 100 metres per game.
I still maintain he was a matter of minutes away from a Clive Churchill medal. He could not have done more on the biggest stage of them all.
I wondered where you would put Dylan Brown and Luke Keary.
Personally, I would have moved Keary a bit higher and had Brown somewhere near the bottom of the list. As you said with Kieran Foran, it’s not just the stats – it’s also what the eyes tell you and my eyes didn’t tell me the Parra 5/8 was one of the top 50% of players in that position.