Who would want to be an NRL halfback?
Every loss suffered by your team is going to be lumped on you, regardless of how well you played.
Win a game? Yeah ok, that's your job. Lose a game? Hopeless.
We are in a golden age of elite halfbacks right now. You'll notice the teams who don't feature here, shockingly, also didn't have great seasons overall.
Pretty simply stuff: halfback good = team good!
Today we are going to try and rank the best halfbacks from the 2025 season. This always goes well.
As usual, this is ranked purely on 2025 performance and isn't necessarily just a best halfbacks in the game list.
If you're looking for Tom Dearden, we ran him in the five-eighths rankings a few days ago.
Below are the Top 10 halfbacks from the 2025 season:
1. Nathan Cleary
Despite losing partner in crime Jarome Luai for 2025, Nathan Cleary was still the premiership halfback in the NRL competition.
Cleary, much like the Panthers, started the season early but when he hit form, boy did he hit form!
Twenty-two games produced six tries, 17 try assists, 18 line-break assists, 25 forced dropouts, seven line-breaks, over 578 kick metres per game and 97 run metres per game. He tackled at almost 88% despite being targeted almost every game.
The partnership between Cleary and Blaize Talagai is one that promises to bring great joy to those at the foot of the mountains for many years to come.
For me, Cleary was best o er the season, and Metcalf best for the games he played.
(Remember, halves always look good when their forwards are going forward, so I think Metcalf had to do more / play better, to be as good as he was.)