Six Again: Early predictions for 2025 in rugby league

ONCE the dust settles on Christmas and the decorations are taken down, thoughts will turn to the new year, and with the dawn of every new year hopes are high for what lies ahead.

While all clubs will enter 2025 looking to make the game’s showpiece events, not all will. Some will have more positive seasons than others, some will no doubt face unexpected challenges.

Here we make six predictions of how the 2025 season might shape up across all the leagues.

WIGAN CONTINUE TO DOMINATE BRITISH GAME

With two straight Super League titles under their belt and 2024 ending with the club holding all four available trophies, it is hard to look past Wigan being the leading light of the game once again. In fact 2024 was so perfect that coach Matt Peet has made the decision to stick with virtually the same squad once again. Mike Cooper has retired, while Ryan Hampshire, who has played just 12 games in two seasons, has been released. George Hirst has been recruited from Oldham and this level of consistency within a squad which knows how to win big games could prove vital.

WIGAN WOMEN TO MAKE ONE OF THE MAJOR FINALS

As well as the men’s side taking Super League by storm, Wigan’s Women’s Super League side also enjoyed a positive 2024 season under the guidance of club legend Denis Betts. The Warriors won the Nines tournament and once again made the semi-finals of both the League and Challenge Cup – losing out narrowly in both. While St Helens’ Meg Williams is their only new recruit so far, the added experience the club’s young stars have earned will be invaluable. They ended their wait for a win over one of the big three in 2024, and 2025 could see them break another hoodoo and taste victory in a semi-final.

GOOLE NOT TO FINISH BOTTOM IN DEBUT SEASON

All too often a new club coming into the league structure has found the going difficult in their first year, and have usually ended it propping up the table. But Goole could be one side to stop that rot. Coach Scott Taylor has called on his contacts within the game to build a squad full of Super League and Championship experience, and if they can gel as a team before their debut campaign kicks off, 2025 could be a fruitful year for the game’s newest professional side. And given that Newcastle and Cornwall could struggle again at the wrong end of the table, the stage is set for Goole to buck the trend.

OLDHAM TO MAKE CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY-OFFS

Sean Long led Oldham to League One glory in 2024 with what was already considered by many to be a Championship-quality squad. Add to that the winter signings of Matty Ashurst, Iain Thornley, Adam Milner and perhaps most impressively Josh Drinkwater and you can see that the Roughyeds once again mean business. In Long, Oldham have a coach who has tasted little else other than success throughout his career so he’ll be looking to make the most of the club’s first season back in the second tier since 2019 and will certainly have his eye on a play-off position rather than a relegation fight.

ENGLISH PLAYER TO WIN THE GOLDEN BOOT

We’re not saying that England will win either Ashes series – men’s or women’s – that are due to take place in the autumn, but there could be some success coming our way. With all eyes on the tournaments that will see the world’s best players go head to head, the winners of the prestigious Golden Boot awards are likely to come from England or Australia, and with many of England’s potential candidates now playing their club rugby down under, strong individual performances in those games could see them given the nod to become England’s first winner, in the running game, since Tommy Makinson in 2018.

PANTHERS’ REIGN TO COME TO AN END

With four straight NRL titles under their belts Penrith Panthers have dominated the league scene down under in recent years, but could 2025 see that run come to an end? The departures of Samoa international Jarome Luai and 2023 Golden Boot winner James Fisher-Harris are big losses for Ivan Cleary’s side and how that affects them will only be seen once the season gets started. Melbourne Storm were the last side to beat the Panthers in a Grand Final (in 2020) and are once again tipped to take the Minor Premiership, so will they be the ones to stop Panthers and overturn 2024’s nailbiting 14-6 defeat?

First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 504 (January 2025)