With every season, we see players emerge and show everyone that they are not quite the same player that we saw in previous years.
Whether it’s a young star coming of age, or a savvy veteran returning to form, there are always huge improvements every year in the NRL.
The following is a list of the top five most improved players that we saw in the 2018 season.
1. Luke Brooks
After one of the best debuts in NRL history and being considered the next Andrew Johns after a handful of games in the top grade, the career of Luke Brooks has been one of criticism, pressure and often times disappointment.
After being handed the reins at Wests at such a young age, Brooks struggled in the NRL and often looked out of place on the big stage with poor defence, rushed decision making and ‘panic kicking’.
It seemed that over the last several tumultuous years for the Tigers, a lot of blame seemed to be heaped on the number seven and his lack of success.
However, after the confidence injection of new coach Ivan Cleary, 2018 saw Brooks put together his best season yet and live up to some of the hype put on him as a junior.
After the departure of local juniors Mitchell Moses, James Tedesco and Aaron Woods, Brooks was left to steer the team with the assistance of a veteran Benji Marshall.
This saw Brooks develop to a whole new level and become an excellent game manager and runner of the ball.
The improvement of the Tigers half did not go unnoticed as Brooks finished third in the Dally M voting and was named Dally M Halfback of the Year.
Honourable Mentions:
It was extremely tough to leave these names out of the list and narrow it down to five.
Luke Keary, Tevita Pangai Jr, James Fisher-Harris, Damien Cook, Benji Marshall, John Sutton, Dallin Watene-Zelezniak
