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:
4. Jamal Fogarty
Although Ethan Strange and Kaeo Weekes will dominate the highlights packages, halfback Jamal Fogarty had just as much to do with Canberra's Minor Premiership winning season.
24 games for the Raiders saw him produce 23 try assists, 15 line-break assists, 490 kick metres per game and even a 40/20. He also slotted 92 goals from all angles.
His boot was a massive weapon for Canberra. One that few other halves in the competition could match. He seemed to have the ball on a string, as suggested by the aforementioned 23 try assists.
His signing for Manly will massively ease concerns of fans on the north side of the bridge, but Canberra fans will be left second-guessing the decision.
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.)