The ten biggest storylines from the 2023 NRL season

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. Refereeing remains under microscope Refereeing has, unsurprisingly, continued to be a talking point - and a disappointing one at that - throughout the course of the 2023 campaign. Most weeks, the rhetoric coming out of each round was that the refereeing standards simply weren't good enough, with consistency being the buzz word that continued to fill most of the air time. The NRL's head of football Graham Annesley often was forced to talk for over half an hour at each Monday's footy briefing, with most of the time being spent on decisions. Some were defended, a lot were criticised. It was a storyline that plagued the season as much as any other, and come 2024, the NRL must continue finding ways to improve the standards and consistency of officiating. 2022 top eight teams crumble We will walk more specificially about the South Sydney Rabbitohs a little further into this piece, but they were just one of three sides from the 2022 top eight who were expected to match their performances in 2023. The North Queensland Cowboys and Parramatta Eels were ultimately well short of expectations, both internally and externally throughout 2023. The Eels are difficult to overlook as the most disappointing team of 2023. The men in blue and gold, coming off a grand final, had expectations one would have expected of at least pulling off a finals appearance, and realistically going deep into September. That didn't happen though, with Brad Arthur's side eventually finding themselves out of finals contention. They weren't helped at times by injury or suspension, but there were more than enough question marks both over individual performances and the way they were coached to suggest things won't rapidly go back to the way they were in 2022 come the end of the 2024 campaign. The Cowboys meanwhile still were solid enough at home, winning 8 of their 12 games there throughout the 2023 campaign, but away from home, they were abysmal. Todd Payten's side simply struggled to have any consistency from week to week, and while they attempted to make some changes at the back-end of the year to underperforming areas of the side, they were a case of too little too late. Big things will be required in a shake up for Payten if the Cowboys are going to prove come the start of 2024 that 2022 is the normal moving forward, rather than the anomaly. Dolphins impress but fall short in first season The Dolphins were always going to be one of the key storylines to watch throughout the 2023 season in what was their inaugural campaign as an NRL side. And early on, despite a recruitment campaign which was described by most pundits as well below what was required, they shone. In fact, some suggested they could have been a top eight hopeful based on the way they started the season. But the issue with their recruitment ahead of Season 1 as an NRL team was always going to be depth, and so it proved as injuries and suspensions began to strike across multiple areas of the side. Whether it was Sean O'Sullivan's long-term absence, Thomas Gilbert's injury or a couple of suspendable offences for Felise Kaufusi, the Dolphins constantly found themselves below full strength, and the result was a team who struggled to win games of rugby league no matter the masterful coaching of Wayne Bennett. That's not to say the Dolphins didn't unearth some gems. The return to form of Jamayne Isaako was special to watch, and so too was the emergence of young five-eighth Isaiya Katoa among other areas of the side. Their depth will continue to improve in 2024, partly thanks to some big name signings in Thomas Flegler and Herbie Farnworth, but also because players like Jack Bostock and Mason Teague will improve as they look to become a permanent spot in the first-grade side ahead of Kristian Woolf taking over from Bennett in the coaching chair ahead of 2025. Bulldogs continue mass signing spree The Canterbury Bulldogs recruitment has been a recurring storyline dragging in interest from fans and the media alike for some years now. Cameron Ciraldo's first season in charge of the club - and his first season with a head coaching role - saw little change in results, and, as a result, little change in the way of recruitment and squad refreshing ahead of 2024. Stephen Crichton - who has been signed on fullback money - headlines the group of recruits, while the recent addition of Josh Curran adds plenty to the side for next year. Eyebrows have been raised though regarding their drive to sign utilities. If you count back-up dummy half Jake Turpin, as well as genuine utilities Connor Tracey, Blake Taaffe, Drew Hutchison, Kurt Mann and Jaeman Salmon, they have signed six players who can play multiple positions. It has led to plenty of questions around where exactly those players will line up in Canterbury's 17 come the 2024 season during what is going to be a big year both on and off the field for the club. Realistically, the time for excuses after another dismal year in 2023 is over. It's going to be finals or bust for the blue and white. Kalyn Ponga leads incredible Knights resurgence The Newcastle Knights were, without doubt, dead and buried at one point in 2023. Adam O'Brien appeared to be hanging by the narrowest of threads to his job, and the whole club was about ready to blow things up and start again. Kalyn Ponga couldn't stay on the field, Jackson Hastings hadn't had the impact he was supposed to have upon arrival, and things simply didn't work. But then, it changed. Ponga was the mastermind, but the entire team bandied together and improved out of sight. Even with Hastings spending a chunk of the second half of the year on the sidelines with an injury, it was the likes of unsung heroes Phoenix Crossland and Kurt Mann who filled in at hooker, the Saifiti brothers and even Greg Marzhew and Dominic Young in the backs who made the Knights a force. They ended up being bundled out of the finals in Week 2, but their win over the Raiders in an elimination final and run to the end of the regular season had to be seen to be believed. The Rabbitohs dramatic fadeout We touched on this earlier, but the Rabbitohs' dramatic fadeout after leading the competition almost halfway through was worthy of its own storyline. The Rabbitohs, under Jason Demetriou and with misfiring players left, right and centre, were simply put, terrible during the second half of the competition. The first half of the year saw the club work out defensive strategies that simply worked. The second half of the year saw that go out the back window as their average points conceded per game more than doubled after Round 11 to the end of the season. That wasn't the only problem in the Redfern-based burrow though. South Sydney had coaching staff changes at the end, rumours of disharmony through the middle and big questions still left to be answered over the likes of starting halfback Lachlan Ilias. The roster was too good to miss the finals, and even more so from where they were, but they did, and 2024 now shapes as a moving year for Souths where things either turn a corner, or heads start rolling. Brad Fittler's future The future of the New South Wales State of Origin coach realistically should have been decided the moment the Blues fell behind 2-0 in the 2023 Origin series. Fittler losing two straight series with a team that, at worst, should have been very competitive, was always going to be a death knell. Losing this year's series in straight sets on the back of a number of questionable selections and strategies though was the axe falling. It took the NSWRL a long time to act though, and even then, all reports suggested it was Fittler jumping rather than being pushed out of the role. The now-former Blues Origin coach will still be an all-time great of the state for his playing exploits, and he did have some success behind the clipboard early, but the Blues needed a change, and they will have that heading into 2024 with Michael Maguire taking over the reins. Warriors return to Auckland with a bang Okay, so, technically, the Warriors 'returned' to Auckland at the back-end of 2022. But their real return was 2023. New coaching, a squad overhaul and a country who came out in their droves to support a team that exceeded all expectations. Andrew Webster should have been handed the keys to the city by the time it was all said and done, such was the dramatic turnaround of a team who had been forced to become the NRL's travelling nomads for years during the coronavirus block. They were then hit with release requests from players who didn't want to travel, but instead focused their efforts on players who did want to be in Auckland, with Webster turning them all into world-beaters. The Warriors ultimately fell a game short of the grand final, but it was a 2023 season to remember, and one would only expect they are going to get better in 2024 with Shaun Johnson continuing, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck returning and others improving. Big changes at the Tigers Have the Wests Tigers finally found a winning formula to begin improving the club in 2024? It's anyone's guess at this stage, but the biggest broom through the joint-venture in a decade simply had to happen if the Tigers were ever going to become a force again. It started in the middle of the season with Luke Brooks signing on with the Manly Sea Eagles in a move which surely must be viewed as the best available for all parties. Then Tim Sheens fell on his sword with other players also making their departures, before the board was terminated on advice of an independent review after the regular season. All of the moves had to happen, and, as it has been for the last number of years, the Tigers were a constant talking point in 2023. They will be sweating on that not being the case under Benji Marshall in 2024. 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.