NRL Rookie of the Year: The Brick, the flying mullet and Tigers' only bright spot

With just three rounds of the regular season to go, minds have begun to turn towards the Dally M Awards – especially now that the CBA deal has been signed, so we know there will actually be an awards to talk about in the first place.

Shaun Johnson must have the big gong sewn up, but there’s plenty of debate to be had about the Rookie of the Year Award, with the field as open as it has been in years.

Last time around, it was a done deal: Jeremiah Nanai walked it in after making Queensland and Kangaroos squads in his very first season. 

Indeed, it’s not been that competitive at all of late, with Sam Walker a consensus candidate in 2021, Harry Grant stealing the show in 2020 and Payne Haas before that in 2019.

2023, however, has no obvious frontrunner. It’s strange, too, because there’s no lack of great rookies. Even distilling it down to a top five has been hard, with plenty of talent left on the outer.

A lot of it depends on what you like. Walker, for example, burst onto the scene in a blaze of glory and was immediately picking up points. He looked like a superstar from the moment he debuted. 

But the true test of a rookie mightn’t be how good they looked from the get-go, but how accustomed to life in the NRL they were from the beginning, and how well they stepped up to the mark.

Walker, the shooting star, found himself out of first grade this year despite his brilliant entry to the NRL, whereas other, less immediately excellent former winners like Jack Bird and Nick Cotric have turned good first seasons into bulk time in the top grade.

We’ve got a bit of both this year in that regard, so let’s get into it.

Remember, the criteria is four or fewer games of NRL or Super League, and the voting is done in the same way as the Dally M, with whichever rookie comes out on top of the regular voting declared that year’s best.

Jahream Bula

If you like your rookies to be shooting stars, then look no further than Jahream Bula. The Wests Tigers fullback won Dally M points in his very first game in grade and has consistently been among their best every week in the NRL.

It might count against him that the rest of his team aren’t very good – though it might assist in getting Dally M points, as he’s the only one who scores – but in a season with few bright sparks for the Tigers, undoubtedly Bula is the brightest.

The 21-year-old’s rise is even more amazing because he barely played NSW Cup, leaping directly from Jersey Flegg in 2022 to NRL in 2023 with only three games in reggies in between,. 

Credit to Tim Sheens – he picked it back in January and gave him his chance against Manly in Round 8.

Since then, Bula has the fifth most metres of any fullback – though stats really mean nothing compared to the level of hope he’s given to fans of the NRL’s most beleaguered club.

Will Warbrick

Bula went into a team that couldn’t get any worse, but Will Warbrick was under a totally different type of pressure.

The Storm winger moved into a system that works well, but requires the absolute performance of all its constituent parts – not an easy task for a man playing his first game in the NRL after years dedicated to an entirely different sport.

The Brick moved over from the All Blacks 7s team, where he had played at the 2021 Olympics, and is a relatively old rookie at 25. But still: he told The Roar all the way back in April about the mental differences between the games

“As a wing in rugby union, you stay on the edge and you’re in the space, whereas in league you’re taking those first carries and running into a wall of fellas that are trying to take your head off,” he said.

“It’s the volume of running and contact as well as playing 80 minutes – in sevens, you play 14 minutes. Some people don’t realise how much of a difference that is.”

It’s gone pretty well for the winger. 12 tries in 20 games is a decent return, but perhaps even more important is how he’s cemented himself in one of the toughest teams to get into in the comp. Craig Bellamy loves him, and that says it all.

Jacob Preston

If you want a rookie who has continually done it tough and stuck it out, look no further than Jacob Preston.

The Dogs have been all about their signings and their kids in 2023, giving out debuts left right and centre, but the one who has had the most impact is the blonde-haired backrower.

Rookies are given a fair bit of leeway when they enter the comp, and inconsistency is baked into expectations. Yet Preston took to first grade like a duck to water and hasn’t looked back. 

He has been almost ever-present in 2023, missing only one game before picking up a suspension last weekend.

No wonder Bulldogs Twitter has the started a #PrestonMania trend: the mulleted icon so good on both sides of the ball that he’s got the unusual statistical quirk of being fourth among backrowers for line breaks while also being second for tackles made. It’s volume stuff, and fans love it.

Alofiana Khan-Pereira

The Titans are a bad football team, but they do score a plenty of points – and a lot of that has to do with Alofiana Khan-Pereira.

AKP has slotted into the NRL lexicon alongside CNK, JWH and DWZ, and it’s largely because of his finishing. He’s fifth in the tryscorers list and has impressed not only with his speed, but also his composure – Lofi has 18 tries from 23 line breaks, but also five try assists, with more than a couple from kicks inside to teammates.

Anyone who had seen him play for Burleigh in the Queensland Cup knew that Khan-Pereira had pace, but the big question was whether the rest of his game would hold up to the rigours of week-to-week first grade.

In a side that has gone through a lot of turbulence, AKP has become a rock, with over 100m per game on average and far better defensive stats than, well, most of the rest of the Titans. 

Second grade footy can often be a lot more unstructured and open than the NRL, and one of the biggest challenges for wingers coming through is getting used to the consistency and fewer chances to shine. Khan-Pereira has proven excellent on both fronts. 

Isaiya Katoa

Every halfback has to start somewhere, but there can be few less advantageous places to start than as the playmaker for an expansion team that everyone expects to get beat every week.

Isaiya Katoa, however, isn’t really your average half. He’d already completed lower grade, jumping from park footy to winning Flegg with a last minute field goal and scoring crucial wins in the NSW Cup, before graduating straight into Tonga’s World Cup squad before he’d played NRL.

Having left Penrith for a better pathway at the Dolphins, coach Wayne Bennett had clearly seen enough in there to throw his young gun in at the deep end, with Katoa starting in Round 1 and playing pretty much every week since.

He’s kept Anthony Milford out of the team for a long time, and, unlike most halves, hasn’t made the top rookies list because of his highest highs, but because he’s slotted in perfectly as a consistent, week to week player. Oh, and he’s just still just 19!

(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

Honourable mentions

Sunia Turuva – The Panthers winger has been excellent in his first full year of grade, but stands just outside the top five. He burst onto the scene with Fiji and has become a mainstay of a champion Panthers team – and Tito has even taken the Chief Energy Officer role off Jarome Luai.
 Tom Hazelton – It’s hard being a big man at the Sharks, who value agility more than size at times, but the 1.98m, 116kg behemoth from Goulburn has added so much to their pack. It’s hard to believe he’s a rookie, given that the bald head and tape combo makes it look like Hazelton has been drafted in from 1985, but he made just one appearance in 2022. 

J’Maine Hopgood – Hopgood vaulted into Origin camps based on his stellar start with Parramatta. Having played nine games across two years at the Panthers, he’s ineligible for rookie status, but this feels like his rookie season so it’s well worth mentioning Hopgood’s name.