2023 has been a year full of incredible rugby league stories.
When you have a grand final for the ages, sacked coaches - including one at Origin level - a new team entering the competition and big changes across the competition, that is hardly going to come as a surprise to many.
But what were the stories that defined 2023?
Here are the top ten.
1. A grand final for the ages
Could the best story of the year really be anything other than that amazing grand final which surely must rival the 2015 decider between the Broncos and Cowboys as the best of the modern era?
This was a game that simply had it all. From the build up over whether anyone could stop the Panthers, to the rise of Kevin Walters' Broncos from a team who fell out of the top eight in dramatic circumstances at the back-end of 2022 to one who was a contender in 2023, to Jarome Luai's shoulder and Nathan Cleary's knee.
It was then a game that fit the storyline of the build-up.
At one stage, leading into the halftime break, it did appear that Penrith well and truly had the best of the running and could have run away with it, but then, enter Ezra Mam.
The Broncos five-eighth was simply phenomenal through the second half as he ran on a hat-trick to put the Red Hill-based outfit in front.
20 minutes to go had the Broncos with one hand on the Provan-Summons trophy, but then it was over to Nathan Cleary who stepped up without his halves partner and pulled Penrith back from what appeared a certain defeat to win their third competition in a row.
Simply a fitting end to a season with plenty of ups and downs.
