Over the past decade-or-so, we've seen the fullback role both change and increase in importance.
Fullbacks are now expected to have the ballplaying skills of halves, the running metres of forwards, and try scoring abilities of wingers.
We're in a golden age of Rugby League fullbacks. 2022 saw a number of brilliant performances in the custodial role.
Below we look at the ten best performances by fullbacks in 2022. To be eligible, the player in question must have played fullback in more games than he did another position.
Please note this is a best of 2022 list and not necessarily the best fullbacks in the game. For example, Tom Trbojevic won't feature below despite being undisputedly in the top two or three fullbacks in the game.
6. Xavier Savage
The Canberra youngster's season is very difficult to grade overall but judging purely by his performances in the fullback position, he had a brilliant 2022.
It's no coincidence that the Raiders season turned around with both the return of Jamal Foggarty and the moving of Savage back to fullback fulltime.
Seven tries, seven try assists, eight line breaks, 41 tackle breaks and 142 run metres per game provides a handy return. All of those stats would have been higher if he'd been named in the one from the early rounds.
Savage was Canberra's best player, by a mile, in their horror loss to the Eels showing he's not just a front runner. Huge future, great season.
You could put the top four in any order and I would not disagree with your conclusion. There is little to choose between any of them. All excellent players.