The easiest thing to measure in rugby league is wins and losses.
Culture is a little harder.
Yet ask anyone inside the game, and they'll tell you it can be the difference between keeping players and losing them, filling stadiums or emptying them, building a contender or constantly rebuilding one.
While some clubs are still searching for their identity, others are embracing it.
From the Warriors and their 'Up the Wahs' movement to the rise of 'Foz Ball', these are the clubs currently getting the top grades in the NRL culture curriculum.
2. Manly Sea Eagles
When was the last time a club rallied so hard behind a new coach that it created an entirely new brand in the process?
The rise of ‘Foz Ball' at the Manly Sea Eagles is starting to feel less like a catchy slogan and more like a full-blown cultural movement, one that might even be strong enough to forever crush the long-standing ‘everyone hates Manly' narrative.
It all came to a head in Round 14, when Four Pines Park was rebranded as ‘Foz Pines Park' to celebrate Kieran Foran's elevation from interim coach to the full-time role.
Even the local KFC's joined the party, swapping Colonel Sanders for a Foran-inspired lookalike while chanting “KFC! (Kieran Foran Coach)” echoed across the Northern Beaches.
It was equal parts absurd and brilliant, the kind of inside joke that somehow becomes a public celebration.
Fans turned up to Brookvale Oval dressed head-to-toe in ‘Foz Ball' gear, helped along by 25 per cent ticket discounts as the club leaned fully into the moment. It didn't feel like a typical matchday; it felt like a festival that happened to include a football game.
And then, of course, came the football.
Winning the match after their fullback was sin-binned in the first half had all the hallmarks of a fairytale afternoon on the hill.
The result also means Foran's win record at Brookvale since taking charge sits at 100 per cent, reinstating their beloved home ground as the ‘fortress' after multiple home game losses to start 2026.
From a slow start to the season to now sitting inside the top four, Manly have become a must-watch not just for results, but for everything happening around them.
It's hard to swallow, but I think I have some ‘Foz Ball' FOMO creeping in.
It would also be remiss of me not to mention that this has all been achieved under the newly appointed CEO, Jason King.
The ultimate way to instil club culture into management and include the ‘Old Boys' that shaped their legacy is to give them the job of CEO.
The veteran played 217 games for Manly, and seeing a club not only be coached by a former player, but led by one overall, proves that the power of the play cannot be underestimated.
If the Sea Eagles made at least one NRL game mandatory in their hiring process for club roles, I would say fair enough. It's working.
