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.
4. PNG Chiefs
I'm going to do my best to write this without comparison to another incoming club… but what the PNG Chiefs have achieved in such a short period of time is genuinely impressive.
The remarkable part isn't the players they've signed.
It's the story they've built around them.
Every signing announcement feels like another chapter being added to a book rather than another name being added to a roster.
Instead of rolling out a standard graphic and contract length, the Chiefs have consistently framed players as pieces of a much larger puzzle, showing how their personal journey connects to the story of Papua New Guinea's first NRL team.
That might sound like a small detail, but culture is often built through the little things.
The Chiefs understand that people don't just buy into teams. They buy into stories. And right now, few clubs in rugby league are telling their best.
They've also shown a willingness to do things differently.
Rather than relying exclusively on traditional media coverage to showcase its facilities and plans in Port Moresby, the club has embraced social media creators, podcasts and modern rugby league platforms to tell its story.
The result feels like a less polished corporate launch and more authentic behind-the-scenes access.
It gives fans a chance to feel part of the journey rather than simply observe it.
And that's where the Chiefs have been particularly clever.
They haven't tried to present Papua New Guinea as a version of Australia. They've embraced the fact that it is different.
Under the guidance of figures like Michael Chammas and Lorna McPherson, the club appears determined to lean into what makes Papua New Guinea unique rather than dilute it.
The result is a brand that already feels distinct in a competition where many clubs are still trying to figure out exactly who they are.
Perhaps most interestingly, a theme is beginning to emerge around connection and reunion.
The Chiefs increasingly feel like a destination that can reconnect old teammates, old friendships and familiar combinations. If they were somehow able to reunite Jarome Luai and Brian To'o under the same banner, the club's identity would almost write itself.
