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
4. Cody Walker
Full disclosure, this was "the clear top four and the rest" From here, it's all pretty close so I'd be happy with the next two or three in any order.
Cody Walker, at times in 2023, was on another planet. From round six to Round 14, I thought Walker was going to win the Dally M medal.
Much like Souths though, Walker's form fell off drastically at the back end of the season. That said, overall Walker can be pretty happy with his efforts.
Across 22 games Walker chimed in with nine tries, 24 try assists, 32 line break assists, 11 forced drop outs, almost 200 kick metres per game, 80 run metres and just on 85% tackling efficiency. Good shift!
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.