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:
8. Luke Metcalf
Luke Metcalf was on track to win the Dally M medal when he went down with an ACL injury. Unfortunately, his season would end in Round 17.
Before that, he ran out 15 times for eight tries, nine try assists, seven line-break assists, nine forced dropouts, 377 kick metres per game, 71 run metres per game and eight line-breaks.
Metcalf also tackled at over 88% proving his increased attacking output did not cost him when it came to his defensive efforts.
You can only imagine how different the Warriors season would have been if their star seven had not gone down injured. Metcalf could be standing here today with the Dally M medal.
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.)