Sometimes, all we remember about the best tries in the NRL is who scored them.

The flashy wingers diving for the corner, out-leaping their opponent for a precision kick, or streaking away after being superbly put through the line.

And sure, try assists certainly get mentioned, but they don't get quite as much credit as the players on the end of them. Mybookie gives you all the opinions on the NRL that you need to know to make the best picks.

When it comes to try assists, few have been more consistent in recent years than Cody Walker of the South Sydney Rabbitohs, but it hasn't been the Rabbitohs five-eighth to take out the top gong in the last two seasons after he set all sorts of records with 33 assists in South Sydney's 2021 season which ended in a grand final appearance.

2022 saw Walker finish third, with Mitchell Moses (23 assists) just beating out Luke Keary (22 assists), while 2023 saw Shaun Johnson lead the emphatic turnaround of the New Zealand Warriors with 29 assists, beating Nicho Hynes on 28. Walker finished fifth.

The new season is already underway, with none of the usual suspects registering prominently for try assists during the opening round, but here are the favourites to top the NRL in 2024.

Cody Walker (South Sydney Rabbitohs)

Walker, as mentioned, has been the NRL's most consistent try assist weapon in recent seasons.

He has one of the best passing games in the competition, and while his record season is a little bit of an outlier, he has been at or near the top of this stat without fail for much of his career.ย 

In the last five years alone he has laid on 115 try assists, which is well ahead of any other player over the same timeframe.

Nathan Cleary (Penrith Panthers)

There is little doubt that when the whips are cracking at the end of the season, the Penrith Panthers will again be in and around the NRL finals.

A large part of that is down to the level-headedness of Nathan Cleary at halfback. You could argue he was realistically the only reason the Panthers enter the 2024 campaign as defending premiers.

His passing and kicking is pin-point accurate, and there are few players who match him in the halfback role. Certainly, others on the Panthers have more flash, but Cleary will play a leading hand in plenty of tries this year.

Nicho Hynes (Cronulla Sharks)

What makes Nicho Hynes so dangerous is that he is the key ball-player for the Sharks, and the halfback. Instead of having an equally as destructive five-eighth, Hynes is something of a one-man show at times for the men from the Shire.

That leaves the club often relying on Hynes to produce just about everything in attack, and it's little surprise his numbers across the board are off the charts.

Shaun Johnson (New Zealand Warriors)

Last year's winner in this category, Johnson was the most important part of the Warriors' stunning turnaround throughout the 2024 campaign.

A flashy attacking weapon who has taken the edge off his game in recent years in favour of a more conservative halfback role, he still has all the style and substance he had when he first cracked the NRL.

If the Warriors play finals football again, expect a lot of points to be the reason why, and Johnson to be the key catalyst in ensuring those points flow.

Ben Hunt (St George Illawarrra Dragons)

Maybe one that will surprise at the end of this list, but in a horrendously well-beaten Dragons' outfit more often than not throughout 2023, Hunt still managed 19 try assists in 22 games.

He is the most important player at the Dragons bar none, and with the club under the new coaching of Shane Flanagan, there are genuine prospects of a turnaround.ย 

The Dragons impressed in Round 1 with a beatdown of the Gold Coast Titans, and Hunt found himself in the thick of things, laying on two tries for his teammates to take the early lead in the race to be the NRL's leading assister in 2024.

He won't feature in too many conversations, but it would be a fool's game to sleep on what Hunt brings to the Dragons.