When November arrives, it’s the beginning of the new NRL year.
Uniquely to Australia’s national rugby league competition, November 1 marks the start of a recruitment frenzy. As of that date, many players will enter the final year of their contracted deals, which means they’re free to negotiate with rival clubs and sign new deals wherever they choose.
And due to this player movement framework, clubs need to be thinking at least one year in advance or they’ll get left behind.
Now’s the time for NRL teams to have plans in place and be prepared to pounce.
So on that note, here are 10 of the more intriguing talking points, as we count down to the rugby league new year.
The Reynolds succession plan
2025 may be Adam Reynolds’s last in the NRL. But whether it is or not, Brisbane needs to figure out what life after their key conductor actually looks like.
Reynolds is 13 first-grade games shy of 300, with plenty of tread on his tyres and a growing injury history.
The half’s breakthrough campaign came after his emergence as a rising star and subsequent flame-out on the Gold Coast.
Sexton put some great football on tape down the back half of last season, justifying some of the early-career hype, and could be on a number of clubs’ radars. He’s a Brisbane boy originally and clubs on both sides of the Tweed are in the market for a playmaker.
Starting halfbacks on controllable contracts are worth their weight in gold.
