The 2025 NRL season is about to kick off so it is time to see who are the favourites to win the Grand Final with betting agencies and with punters themselves!
Something to note about the NRL is recent years is that it seems to take longer for clubs to build themselves towards a premiership contender, get themselves off the bottom third of the NRL ladder, and also fall from premiership contention.
Something has to go really wrong with a side for them to tumble down the NRL ladder compared to their previous season. At the same time, a club needs to go on a real clean out, and then spending spree on players to make a huge leap up the ladder.
With that in mind, many of the same favourites to win the NRL Premiership in 2025 were among the favourites last year as well.
The Penrith Panthers will be very hard to beat again in 2025. Sure they lost a few key players, but their junior base is pumping out so many good young players right now. If any club in the competition can overcome losses, it’s the Panthers. They might start the season off a little slower than usual, but no one will want to be facing them in the 2025 NRL Final series.
The Melbourne Storm should be favourites for the Minor Premiership in 2025. Along with the Panthers they will be hard to beat to at least make the NRL Grand Final this year. They didn’t have any major losses and hey, its the Storm, they are always there or there about.
Then we have a bit of a drop to the next level of teams…
The Cronulla Sharks are looking good again this season with no major losses and the addition of Addin Fanua-Blake. He will add so much to their forward pack and could help them step up to the next level, however come finals time, Nicho Hynes being their main playmaker is a massive, massive issue. He has proven to not be a big game player at all so far during his career. If anything, he is a liability when it matters.
The Canterbury Bulldogs should be in the top four teams this season. On the back of their defense, and having a season of being competitive under their belts, they will be better than most teams in the premiership race. How they fare when the whips are cracking in the NRL Finals series is anyones guess. They have some pedigree in their side with a number of former Penrith Panthers players in their team, its just a case if everyone else can handle that step up.
The North Queensland Cowboys look great on paper. The problem last year was their extreme levels of inconsistency that could see them destroy a team one week, and the. get annihilated themselves the next week. That is normally a bad sign when you are projecting for NRL Finals series performance, but we will see. If they get more consistent this season, they could be a real problem for anyone.
So, what about the rest of the teams in the NRL?
I honestly don’t see any of them being true contenders in 2025. The Roosters will fall off after having lost so many players, the Manly Sea Eagles are poorly coached and too inconsistent, the New Zealand Warriors are in a rebuild mode, the Canberra Raiders are perennial pretenders and the Brisbane Broncos just seem like they need a settled season in under their belts before they can focus on higher honours.
