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You might think the trials – OK, the NRL Pre-Season Challenge, to give it its proper name – are a bit of hit and giggle, a chance to run around and, as every player is legally obliged to describe it in interviews, blow out a few cobwebs.
But there’s always another level, because while clubs tend to run a proper side in the first half, they give anyone a game in the second, leaving plenty of chances for young talent to shine.
Last year, we got Dogs youngster Declan Casey earning viral status by ironing out Kalyn Ponga. He ended up making multiple appearances in the NRL before the year was out. Ezra Mam, too, got a debut in Broncos colours and was their starting five eighth by the end of the year.
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This year, we get another run, and to get the appetites ready, here’s 13 kids to keep an eye on. They should all get runs in pre-season, and, all going well, be in top grade by the end of the year.
For reference: the NRL Rookie of the Year award is available to anyone with fewer than four appearances prior to 2023, which is the criteria followed here.
Nephew of England international Josh, Bailey Hodgson was all set for a debut in 2022 and, given the injury issues with Kalyn Ponga would almost certainly have featured towards the back end of the year.
Unfortunately, he fractured an elbow in the Trials and then had the same injury again when he returned mid-year. The kid couldn’t catch a break.
The Castleford Tigers product has actually played one game of Super League – all the way back in 2020 – but is yet to feature in the NRL. He’s currently training at 1 for the Knights, and with Lachie Miller just in the door, it’s his position to lose in Round 1.
Izaac Thompson has the unusual position of being both relatively well-known and also a rookie.
He made two appearances last year, keeping him well within the rookie threshold, and scored in both. He also offering a very different profile to Jaxson Paulo and Taane Milne, who he replaced in 2022, with a bigger body and greater metre potential.
Paulo is gone and Milne is suspended, so the expectation is that Thompson will get first crack. He was second top in tryscoring and averaged 145m per game in the NSW Cup, which will help Souths’ set starts.
If Izaac doesn’t get the gig, it might not be long until we see Josiah Karapani. At 21, he’s physically ready for a start and made even more metres in Cup than Thompson while also bringing exceptional footwork. He might ultimately end up in the centres, but will start his NRL career on a wing.
You don’t have to have had your ear to the ground for too long in reggies to have heard of Bulldogs gun Paul Alamoti.
The centre tore up NSW Cup last year and, had the season gone on a few weeks further, would probably have made first grade.
He comes perfectly primed for a side that generates a lot of offloads – he led Cup in that stat despite playing out wide – and earned himself a spot in the Blues’ team that won u-19s Origin.
With the Dogs looking to the future, don’t be surprised to see him start Round 1.
The Dolphins have been on a signing spree to fill out their first roster, but have skewed older as they seek to build a culture from scratch.
The exception might be Valynce Te Whare, the Q Cup Centre of the Year, who was worth 12 tries in 14 games in 2022 at the Dolphins and earned himself a crack in first grade.
He’s listed at 108kg, which would make him the biggest centre in the comp, so no wonder they call him ‘Val Meninga’ up in Redcliffe. If Uncle Wayne can get experience either side of him – and get enough good ball to him – then he’ll shine.
Outscoring Te Whare was Alofiana Khan-Pereira, who went better than one per game in the Q Cup last year with Burleigh Bears.
The mulletted speedster boasts a killer left foot step and loves to go from deep, with a killer highlight reel. OK, the Q Cup is rugby league’s equivalent of a Tuesday afternoon at Menagle, but you can’t ignore the form.
Brian Kelly is set to miss the start of the year, pushing Philip Sami inside and offering Khan-Pereira the chance to stake a claim on the wing.
The Bulldogs junior base has been kicking into gear in the last 18 months, with Jacob Kiraz going close to Rookie of the Year in 2022 and Paul Alamoti set to star in 2023.
You can add Khaled Rajab to that list: Dogs fans called Kiraz the ‘Lebanese King’ and the young half might well be the Prince – though he told The Roar that, in World Cup camp, he was known as ‘The Godfather’.
If you saw Lebanon’s World Cup campaign, you will remember Rajab – he was the ponytailed, bearded half who seemed to the manor born alongside stars like Mitchell Moses and Adam Doueihi.
The kid is as confident as they come and backed himself to get an NRL debut in 2023. Gus Gould agrees with him, all but guaranteeing the rookie playmaker a chance.
Given that Rajab has gone from SG Ball Player of the Year to Flegg to NSW Cup to the World Cup within 18 months, expect the next step up to be soon.
(Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
Also featured at the World Cup was Isaiya Katoa, who was given the starting halfback jersey for Tonga at the age of just 18. He looked a million bucks in the famous red and white jersey.
The story is well-trodden: Katoa is a Panthers junior who took one look at a pathway that had Nathan Cleary at the top of it and thought better of waiting around for a chance. He signed early with the Dolphins and was banished – or simply injured, depending on who you believe – from the development squads.
Midway through 2022 he was playing park footy in the Penrith comp, but roared back to feature in NSW Cup, then drop back to age group and secure the Flegg title for the Panthers. Then, of course, came his coming out party in St Helens.
Now, he sits behind Sean O’Sullivan at the Dolphins, but don’t expect that to last for long. He’ll start the year playing Q Cup, but it seems impossible that Katoa will finish it there.
(Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Franklin Pele is box office. He’s been putting bums on seats at Newtown – alright, bums on grassy hill – for the better part of two years with a hard-running, off the back fence style that calls to mind Feka Paleaaesina.
He’s listed at over 120kg and builds up a fair head of steam, resulting in plenty of tries from long and short range – more than once has Pele gone the length of the field at Henson Park. He got one game for the Sharks in 2020 so would still count as a rookie: expect to see him sooner rather than later for the Bulldogs, his new club.
Soni Luke technically counts as a rookie, and will certainly have a breakout year at the Panthers, but given that he’s 26 and appeared last year (and in the World Cup), let’s chat about Blake Mozer instead.
Mozer is the reason that the Broncos have resisted going to market for a long-term hooker: they think he’s the future and, based on what he have seen so far, it’s hard to disagree.
He’s played all the reps for Queensland and has been locked in until 2025 despite never having played in the NRL.
Brisbane will begin with Bailly Walters and Corey Paix alternating at dummy half, but the plan down the track will be to introduce Mozer once he has more games against men in the Q Cup under his belt.
Ata Mariota has only played 18 minutes of NRL, but already boasts a record: he was the first player to make their first grade debut as a concussion sub. It was a well deserved appearance, however brief.
Mariota was named to the NSW Cup Team of the Year in the front row, and will surely get more than a quarter of an hour this year: his numbers, especially with ball in hand, more than merit a call up.
He will likely feature off the bench to start with – nobody is displacing Joseph Tapine and Josh Papali’i – but as they age, Mariota is primed to increase his minutes and challenge the likes of Emre Guler and new signing Pasami Saulo for gametime.
Oryn Keeley rocketed from nowhere into the NRL in 2022, grabbing late season minutes at the Knights as their injury crisis kicked in.
He began the year having barely played since before Covid, having suffered from the lack of games that inflected all lower grade sides in NSW and a series of injuries.
The backrower was happy to be in the Flegg side at the start of the year – he didn’t even get a run in the Trials, when Newcastle named 31 players – but ended the campaign in first grade, having impressed in NSW Cup and picked up player of the match in u-19s Origin on the way.
With the Knights having lost Mitch Barnett, David Klemmer, Jirah Momoisea, Sauaso Sue and Pasami Saulo from their rotation, there are minutes there if Keeley can put his hand up in this year’s pre-season and impress.
Jack Howarth has been the next big thing at Melbourne for a while, but 2023 looks like the year where it might actually happen for him. He was in the top 30 last year – and they re-signed him through 2027 – but failed to get a run despite extensive backline injuries in Melbourne.
He splits time between centre and second row, starting his 2022 at the Sunshine Coast Falcons as a back and ending it as a forward, where he also played in the Queensland U-19s side.
The Storm are running him as a centre at the moment, but the pathway there seems a little jammed with Reimis Smith back in action, Marion Seve impressive last year and former All Black 7s player Will Warbrick also on the books.
It might be that the backrow allows Howarth to play limited minutes at first, while still offering the chance to gain experience in top grade. With Felise Kaufusi and Kenny Bromwich gone, there is space for a newcomer.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
One of the most storied names in rugby league returned to first grade last year, with Zac Fulton debuting for Manly in the infamous Pride game. He wasted no time making an impact, getting into a stoush with Jared Waerea-Hargreaves almost immediately. Suffice to say he wasn’t overawed by the experience.
It took seven first graders to stand themselves down for him to get a game, but in 2023, it looks likely that the grandson of the great Bob Fulton will see plenty of NRL regardless of the rest of his team.
Manly are unusual as they tend to roll their best kids – see also: Kaeo Weekes, Gordon Chan Kum Tong – in Jersey Flegg, based out of the Beaches and usually spotted before NRL games, rather than with their NSW Cup side at Blacktown.
That means that Manly fans have already seen plenty of their next generation in the flesh, and they might be about to see more of Fulton in the near future.
He tore up lower grades and took home the Jake Trbojevic Rising Star award for the best Sea Eagles junior – as well as a contract extension for the next two years.
With Josh Schuster moving to the halves and Andrew Davey off to the Bulldogs, there’s space in the backrow up for grabs, especially towards the end of 2023.