Despite the excitement for the upcoming State of Origin series, let's face it - for the next two months the NRL is going to largely take a back seat.
That's not to say it won't be brilliant, any rugby league is better than none, but there's a plethora of Origin-effected tussles coming up.
Although I'll likely complain about it, the truth is we have been spoiled thus far in 2023.
So much so that I've compiled a list of the top five NRL games of the season. The cut off is the end of Round 12, so any Round 13 games that have completed before publication were not considered.
Initially I shortlisted 14 games, cut down to nine then painstakingly reduced to five. I re-watched highlights of the top nine, so this was a fun one to put together.
Let us know below what was your game of the season, either for your side or just in general.
Here are my top five NRL games (as of May 25) in 2023:
Shortlisted: Roosters vs Souths (Round 3), Roosters vs Dragons (Round 8), Dolphins vs Broncos (Round 4), Knights vs Panthers (Round 7)
1. 1. Panthers vs Eels - Round 4
Grand final "rematches" very often fail to live up to the hype. This game far exceeded it.
Penrith fans won't want to hear it, whilst Parra fans won't find any solace from hearing it, but as a contest this game was ten times that of the grand final.
It's hard to truly do this game justice.
Parramatta entered the contest winless in their opening three games. Penrith entered at one and one, having enjoyed the bye the week earlier.
Unlike other games on here, points were at a premium. Four tries were scored across 81 minutes of finals-like rugby league.
Yes I said 81 minutes as 80 minutes couldn't provide a winner, such was the closeness of these two sides on the night.
For 79 minutes and 40 seconds, this game seed and it sawed before "turning it up to 11" in the final moments.
With 20 seconds to go and 60 metres to travel, trailing 16-14, the Panthers received a penalty that set in motion the arguable play of the season.
Nathan Cleary kicked the ball as he could, to allow himself a shot at field goal from 44 metres out as time expired.
He simply could not have connected with the ball any better as it dropped into the awaiting hands of Clint Gutherson after splitting the posts right down the middle.
On another night this may have broken the Eels but they were able to produce arguably the set of six of the night, allowing Mitch Moses to slow the match-winning field goal from the perfect spot.
This game stands up to anything we've seen, finals included, in recent memory.
