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:
6. Adam Reynolds
The former Souths Premiership winner added a second Grand Final win to his resume, albeit from the sideline, in October.
His leadership both on and off the field has been worth every cent of his entire deal. He delivered a title, four years after Souths wrote him off.
His 22 games this year produced four tries, 81 goals, 17 try assists, 13 line-break assists, 375 kick metres per game, 17 forced dropouts and just below 90% tackle efficiency.
His sideline conversion to knock the Panthers out in the Prelim is the stuff of legend. His Grand Final was very good, until it ended early due to injury. What a season!
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.)