Winners and losers revealed from how the 2023 NRL ladder really looks
The NRL’s bye schedule is completely corrupting the live competition table and gives a massively distorted view of how teams are actually performing. FIND OUT HOW.
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Broncos fans will be thrilled. Eels fans should be heartened … but Roosters and Tigers fans might want to look away.
Because here is why you just can’t trust the live NRL ladder during the State of Origin period, where the schedule for byes completely corrupts where many teams are currently positioned.
The debate around whether clubs should receive two points for a bye, now there are 17 teams, has raged on all season. But it’s only now fans are seeing the ramifications of the NRL’s decision to continue awarding competition points.
With every club getting three byes this season (two during the Origin period), it makes a big difference as to where teams currently stand depending on how many free weekends they have had so far.
The results-based ladder is almost unrecognisable to the actual competition table, with Brisbane, South Sydney and Parramatta the big winners, while the inflated positions of teams like the Penrith Panthers, Sydney Roosters and Wests Tigers are clearly exposed.
On the live ladder four teams are equal at the top on 18 competition points going into round 14 — the Panthers, Sharks, Broncos and Storm.
But, on results alone, the Broncos (without a bye so far) would be alone on top with a league-leading nine wins this season, despite dropping two of their past three games.
The Rabbitohs (also without a bye to date) would be their closest rivals on 16 points.
Behind them would be five teams on 14 points, the Panthers, Sharks, Storm, Dolphins and Raiders.
The big movers are the Eels, who currently sit 13th as they try to recover from a horror start to the season. They get their first bye this weekend, despite the Panthers, Sharks, Storm, Titans, Roosters and Tigers all having had two so far.
Going only on points earned, the Eels would leapfrog the Warriors, Titans, Roosters, Sea Eagles and Knights to be sitting comfortably in eighth position on 12 competition points, with a healthy for-and-against of +52.
It shows the Eels’ position is not as precarious as some would believe.
However, it would also put the Roosters in an even grimmer position given they are currently 10th but have had two byes so far, and would drop to 13th on the bye-less ladder.
That would put them behind the Warriors who are also on 12 points (one bye so far), the Sea Eagles and Knights on 11 (both get their second bye this round), with the Roosters level with the Titans, Cowboys and Bulldogs all on 10 competition points.
The Cowboys are yet to have a bye.
Meanwhile, the Tigers would join the Dragons in equal last on six competition points given the Tigers have had two byes to date and the Dragons one.
Of course you need to factor in the upcoming draw for all the teams to put it in its proper perspective.
But in a competition as tight as it is this season, where it’s been proven time and again that everyone can beat anyone on their best day, looking where every team sits without the byes certainly puts a different spin on what the live ladder is telling us.
Originally published as Winners and losers revealed from how the 2023 NRL ladder really looks
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