NRL 2025: The most important player for every club going into this season

It’s the eve of the 2025 season, a Christmas-like period for most clubs’ fans where the win-loss sheet is still clean and their dreams for the year ahead still yet to be cruelled by injuries (sorry Souths), suspensions (sorry Brisbane) or, even worse, the Bunker (sorry everyone).

With this in mind, we’ve drilled down into the single player likely to make or break your club’s season. In some cases they may be the standalone stars that sides can normally expect to drag their teammates over the line (Kalyn Ponga comes to mind), while in others, they could be the big signings charged with bringing their winning ways to teams that have simply forgotten what victory feels like (Jarome Luai).

In every case, they are still likely to prove integral to your hopes for 2025 and, in certain instances, a crucial shot at the Provan-Summons Trophy.

Brisbane Broncos: Ben Hunt

Even without Ezra Mam’s off-season suspension wreaking havoc in the halves in Red Hill, Hunt was always firming up as the prodigal Sunshine State son.

Almost 10 years after his fateful 2015 Grand Final moment, the Queensland and Australia halfback and hooker will be looking use his Brisbane homecoming as a chance to turn his legacy around after an ultimately uninspiring time at the Dragons.

When Mam returns, the likely shift for Hunt from the halves into the 9 jersey will mean some extra playmaking firepower for the Broncs’ already talented spine, right when business end of the season approaches.

Canterbury Bulldogs: Toby Sexton

Yet another reject of the constant Gold Coast No. 7 shuffle, Sexton proved a crucial factor in reversing the Dogs’ slow 2024 start once he replaced former Roosters stalwart Drew Hutchison in the halves alongside Matt Burton.

Effectively playing for his next contract, expect Sexton’s eyes-up footy style to go up a level, with Dogs legend Willie Mason already rating the former Schoolboys half as one of the players already putting in the hard yards in a gruelling preseason at Belmore.

Cronulla Sharks: Addin Fonua-Blake

During Cronulla’s yearly finals exits, fans in the Shire can often be found blaming the lack of an aggressive big bopper in their workmanlike pack.

Which means coach Craig Fitzgibbon will have few excuses in 2025 with the addition of this 29-year-old Tongan powerhouse, particularly after racking up an average of 191m in each of his three Pacific Championship games for the Mate Ma’a.

His input is likely to mean the difference for the Sharks’ talented halves, Nicho Hynes and Braydon Trindall, getting the badly-needed space to allow their all-star backline to cut opponents to ribbons out wide.

The Dolphins: Tom Gilbert

As the 2023 Cowboys and the 2024 Dolphins can tell you, the loss of Tom Gilbert is an extremely tough obstacle to overcome.

The towering Maroon forward has the kind of aggression and physicality that can strike fear into opposing packs while lifting his own.

Back from extended injury layoffs, expect the Brisbane firebrand to make up for lost time and take the lead of an admittedly talented pack that without him, sometimes seemed rudderless in 2024.

Canberra Raiders: Ethan Strange

If the rumblings from the capital are correct, Ricky Stuart’s youth policy is starting to pay off, particularly in the case of five-eighth and centre Strange.

The club’s 2024 rookie of the year boasts an explosive step, fend and turn of pace capable of breaking games open.

But in his second year of first grade, he’ll have to show he’s mature enough to do it on a week-in, week-out basis and help lead a Green Machine that still seems locked into the inconsistency rollercoaster.

Gold Coast Titans: Alofiana Khan-Pereira

There’s plenty of variables in the constantly reshuffled team list at the Gold Coast, but since his round 1 debut in 2023, the one constant has been Khan-Pereira’s ability to find the line.

The fleet-footed flyer has now notched up 44 tries from 44 appearances. He also notched up the second-most errors for the Titans (30 from 23 games). If he manages to clean up his game on this front, expect his already healthy try tally to soar and a Maroons jersey to head his way.

St George Illawarra Dragons: Clinton Gutherson

The long-suffering Kogarah faithful have been screaming for a skipper to take charge of the once-great Red V for years, and while there was no questioning former captain Ben Hunt’s skill levels, his level of commitment was a different matter.

Gutherson may have been unceremoniously punted by a slumping Parramatta, but few doubted the tireless fullback’s willingness to drag the Eels to a win - even at one point trying to chase down Nathan Cleary on one leg. It’s the kind of passion - and leadership - the Dargs have been sorely missing.

New Zealand Warriors: James Fisher Harris

For years the Warriors have felt the pain of nurturing their rising rugby league talent in a rugby union-dominated land, only to watch them invariably cross the Tasman for big bucks. With JFH, the tables have truly turned.

Apart from gaining the world’s best prop, Fish’s homecoming means the Warriors now finally boast an aggressive powerhouse who knows what it is to hold up the Provan-Summons trophy. Any doubters can simply look at how he took the Kiwis to a record win over Australia in 2023 and played a vital part in Penrith’s four-peat.

Melbourne Storm: Jahrome Hughes

While it always seemed like Melbourne’s all-star spine was in an injury-afflicted state of flux, Hughes remained the rock that the Storm’s 2024 run to the GF was built on.

As bigger name stars went down around him, he simply took his running and kicking game to the next level in his best season in the number 7 jersey. He’ll also be looking to atone for a lacklustre showing in the grand final loss to Penrith, which could mean even bigger things for the purple premiership machine in 2025.

Newcastle Knights: Kalyn Ponga

While a lisfranc injury cruelled the middle of his 2024 season, there was no denying Ponga had cemented his superstar status by its end as he single-handedly dragged a no-frills steel city side to the finals.

He almost managed to take the Knights past the Cowboys in week one of the finals as well with a frenetic one-man show that left bamboozled defenders constantly grasping for air. Despite the emergence of rising fullback Fletcher Sharpe, Ponga’s fitness still means the difference between winning and losing. That double-edged sword for the Knights faithful is likely to continue into 2025.

North Queensland Cowboys: Scott Drinkwater

For the past two seasons, electric fullback Scott Drinkwater’s approach to the game has largely typified the Cowboys and unsettled coach Todd Payten: all-out high-risk, high-reward attacking razzle dazzle starkly juxtaposed with a less-than enthusiastic approach to defence (Tom Dearden notwithstanding).

While the North Queensland custodian has constantly displayed his ability to score from anywhere on the field with his game expanding to clutch 2-point field goals in 2024, he also ranked fourth for the whole league in errors. Will 2025 be the season Drinky finally turns around his attitude on defence along with a team urged by their own coach to “bite down on the mouthguard”? Fans in the deep north will be hoping so.

Wests Tigers: Jarome Luai

Luai’s signature has given long-suffering Tigers fans the kind of tonic that even its standard offseason boardroom brawling can’t dilute: belief. Unlike some other recent recruits to the triple-spooners, the former Penrith pivot has gone all in on his move to Concord, spending the preseason studying game videos, fronting streaming ads in the black and gold and barking orders at training.

Despite his dynamite step and shrewd kicking game, it’s this major attitude adjustment that could finally see the club make the most of its considerable young talents like Sione Fainu, Jahreem Bula and Lachie Galvin, who is tipped to partner Luai in the halves.

Manly Sea Eagles: Tom Trbojevic

Could the most talented member of Manly’s three Trboyevic siblings have finally put his injury demons to bed? The powerful fullback’s blazing return to the national side after a six-year absence and a ferocious end to the 2024 season definitely seem to point him returning to his previous form and, more importantly, confidence.

Despite the emergence of other outside exciting custodians at the club like Lehi Hopoate, the Sea Eagles’ premiership hopes are once again likely to rest on Turbo’s explosive but unpredictable hamstrings.

Souths Rabbitohs: Cody Walker

Master coach Wayne Bennett’s rosy Redfern return has been rocked by massive injury issues to Souths stars Campbell Graham, Cameron Murray and Latrell Mitchell.

Which means he will likely be leaning heavily on the side’s talismanic half Cody Walker more than ever this season. At 35 and also nursing calf issues, the late bloomer doesn’t have many more seasons to make up for the grand final heartbreak of 2022.

But in a tough 2024 for the Bunnies, Walker shed his reputation as a hothead and calmly steered the injury-ravaged side while plugging in gaps at half as well as his regular spot at 5/8.

With Trell missing for a good chunk of the season’s start, Bennett will be relying on Walker to fully take charge and spark an attack that’s largely failed to fire since his last stint at Redfern.

Parramatta Eels: Zac Lomax

You could forgive the Blue and Gold army for griping at the outset of 2025: their $900K-a-season star five-eighth Dylan Brown is once again afflicted by the kind of commitment issues reserved for a MAFS season recap while the club is being forced to share their stadium with the four-peat premiers from further down the M4. Is it Parradise lost again?

Hell no! Zac Lomax is on board to provide Parra with something they’ve been sorely missing: points out wide. While it’s still unclear where he lines up in this backline, it doesn’t really matter: the goateed GOAT showed an uncanny ability to find the line for the Dragons in 2024.

That trend is likely to continue this season when he renews an Origin partnership with Mitch Moses likely to see him frequently scoring from the Eels half’s towering bombs. Add in his laser-like goal kicking boot and suddenly things at Commbank seem a little less blue and a little more gold.

Penrith Panthers: Isaah Yeo

It’s tough to single out just one player among the powerhouse Penrith line-up, or, look past the importance of superstar halfback Nathan Cleary. But while Cleary often provides the cold-blooded clutch plays at the business end of the season, it’s Yeo who keeps the mountain men firmly entrenched at the top of the table for most of the year.

The Penrith veteran has revolutionised the position of lock by combining gritty forward work with the kind of classy ball-playing displays that occasionally leaves some first grade sixes and sevens, well, at sixes and sevens.

Sydney Roosters: Connor Watson

The Roosters’ perennial injury woes took a particularly wicked twist late last year with the lengthy layoff time dealt to rising half Sam Walker and hooker Brandon Smith. But few clubs have a no.14 of the calibre of Watson to lean on in their absence.

Despite having a number of seasons under his belt, 2024 was the year his peerless value from the bench translated to the representative level - simply look at his Origin Game 3 performance where he came on and blew the gridlocked state decider open. He’ll likely be plugging gaps in the halves and at hooker for the Chooks line-up until the middle of the year.

However, the real problem for coach Trent Robinson will be relegating the dynamo back to the bench when Smith and Walker return. But man, that’s a good headache to have.