Every NRL team's most underrated player

We’ve analysed all 17 team lists to compile this collection of the game’s most under-rated stars.

CONTRIBUTOR | November 28, 2022 - 12:05pm

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Every NRL side needs superstars. Players who routinely take the game by the scruff of the neck and guide their side home.

We're inundated with reports and social media posts about how good the likes of Nathan Cleary, James Tedesco and Harry Grant are.

Almost as important though are those players who do their job week-in and week-out, whether or not they attract the plaudits said job deserves.

Today is a chance to celebrate those players. The players, I believe to be, underrated by the majority of fans.

Let us know below who you believe is the most underrated player in your side:

New Zealand Warriors

Wayde Egan
Full disclosure, Egan was the 11th hooker on my list of top ranked number nines in 2022. Looking back on his stats, I may have done him a disservice by leaving him out of the ten.

Truthfully the Warriors were pretty dire in 2022. They absolutely had excuses and did improve upon returning home, but Egan was a very rare constant week-in and week-out.

NRL Rd 18 - Warriors v Panthers — BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA - JULY 18: Wayde Egan of the Warriors breaks through the Panthers defence before scoring a try during the round 18 NRL match between the New Zealand Warriors and the Penrith Panthers at Suncorp Stadium, on July 18, 2021, in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images)

While Shaun Johnson and Reece Walsh provided the highlights, they also turned in shockers, whereas Egan was good at minimum, every week.

The 25-year-old had a career-best year and despite playing second fiddle to Johnson and the incoming Te Maire Martin and Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, I fully expect his 2023 to be just as good, if not better.