The incredible turnaround of the North Queensland Cowboys in 2022 has surprised almost everyone.
Somehow, the side that finished 2021 in 15th spot as the competition's worst defensive side has just booked itself a home preliminary final.
North Queensland have languished in the bottom eight since 2018. But head coach Todd Payten has managed to change their fortunes.
With the 2022 Cowboys in mind, we will explore eight other times in which teams have been able to climb from one end of the ladder to the other in a single season.
5. Canberra Raiders - 2016Â
Going into 2016, it had been four years since the Raiders had been involved in finals football.
Ricky Stuart's side had finished the 2015 season with a record of 10 and 14 which saw them finish in tenth spot.
They had recruited the likes of Aidan Sezer from the Titans to play halfback, as well as Joseph Tapine from Newcastle and Elliott Whitehead from Catalans.
What came next was a season in which the Raiders became the most entertaining attacking sides in the competition.
Scoring 688 points throughout the regular season, 296 of which could be attributed to captain Jarrod Croker who assumed goal-kicking duties in addition to scoring 17 tries.
Their leading try scorer was Jordan Rapana who scored 20 throughout the season, second only to Suliasi Vunivalu at Melbourne.
The Raiders finished the home and away season in second place and bounced back from a qualifying final loss against the Sharks to confront the Storm in a preliminary final.
In the end, the Raiders would fall two points shy of the 2016 grand final losing 14 - 12 at AAMI Park after winger Edrick Lee fumbled the match-winning try.
Panthers 2003: 12th to minor premiers and premiers seems to eclipse several of these.
Knew I would miss at least one. Where would you rank it amongst the others then?
It.s your article, so I don’t want to be presumptuous. I’m also a Panthers’ supporter, so I will acknowledge my bias. It perhaps ranks somewhere between 3 and 5 – They didn’t have the bounce-back effect of internal drama like the Roosters in 3, but didn’t necessarily climb as far. However, they were also wooden spooners two years prior and sat in fifteenth in the second week of the 2003 season. Based on that, I’ll leave it to you to judge… but it certainly ranks 5 at least and I would argue higher.
If I am honest the criteria for the rankings were kind of hard to pin down. Is it more impressive to come from 9th – 12th to win a prem or 13th – 16th and play deep into finals? Also how much do you factor in previous years in a one-year turnaround? Guess to some degree it’s quite subjective. Without delving too deep into the 02 Panthers I would say 03 Penrith is comparable to 13 Roosters so probably 4th or 5th.