THIS is our annual series that looks back at the year just gone and selects the most significant and memorable moments, whether they are triumphs or tragedies, great matches or momentous incidents, domestic or international events.
Let us know whether you agree with our selections.
Our countdown of the top 50 moments of the year began here.
40 Morgan Knowles signs for the Dolphins
On the last day of February the NRL’s Dolphins upset St Helens supporters by announcing that they had signed their iconic loose forward Morgan Knowles for the 2026 season on a two-year contract. It meant that Knowles would link up again with Dolphins coach Kristian Woolf, who coached St Helens from 2020 to 2022, with Knowles a key member of the side that won three consecutive Grand Finals.
It meant that the 2025 season would be Knowles’ last with St Helens, while he would also play for England in the Ashes series against Australia.
“Morgan is one of the hardest-working players I have had the privilege to deal with,” said Woolf.
“His four Super League titles and one Challenge Cup victory prove that he knows what it takes to win and is just the kind of player we want here at the Dolphins.”
Born in Barrow, Knowles, 29, joined the St Helens Scholarship programme at 14, going through their Academy and signing his first professional contract at 15.
Debuting in 2015, Knowles made 246 appearances for St Helens, while also playing four times for Wales and eleven for England.
In 2025 he celebrated his testimonial season.
39 Marc Sneyd wins Lance Todd Trophy
In June at Wembley Warrington Wolves’ scrum-half Marc Sneyd became only the second Rugby League player in history to win the Lance Todd Trophy for a third time, joining Sean Long, who won it in 2001, 2004 and 2006.
Sneyd won it the first two times when playing for Hull FC against Warrington in 2016 (Hull’s first Wembley triumph) and 2017.
Early in the season no one, not least Sneyd himself, would have imagined him taking out the trophy in 2025, as we was playing for Salford as the club slid further into financial difficulties. Sneyd played his last game for them in round 4 on 7th March against Castleford Tigers. Two weeks later he had joined Warrington and helped them defeat St Helens 14-12, with his partnership with George Williams at halfback promising big things for the club. Sneyd helped the Wolves defeat Leigh in the Challenge Cup Final before they faced Hull KR at Wembley on 7th June, which they would lose 8-6 to a late try in the corner by Tom Davies, converted by Mikey Lewis.
Sneyd became only the seventh player to collect the accolade as a member of the losing side, the last being Huddersfield second rower Chris McQueen in the 2022 final won by Wigan, and he collected 31 of the 37 votes cast by members of the media in the Lance Todd vote.
38 Castleford Tigers sack Danny McGuire
At the start of the 2025 season things looked set fair for Danny McGuire, as the new coach of Castleford Tigers. McGuire was announced as the club’s new coach in October 2024 after the departure of his predecessor Craig Lingard, for whom McGuire had been an assistant coach in 2024.
“I have been hugely impressed with Danny’s ambition, his determination, and his technical knowledge of the game and I look forward to working alongside him,” said Tigers owner Martin Jepson at the time.
McGuire had spent the 2023 season at Willie Peters’ assistant at Hull KR.
McGuire had been the interim head coach at Hull KR for the latter part of the 2022 season after the departure of Tony Smith, winning five game out of five and ending with a 36-4 victory over Hull FC.
At Castleford, however, he could only win four games out of 18, losing the opening game at Bradford in the Challenge Cup.
He was eventually dismissed after Castleford’s 30-12 home defeat to Huddersfield Giants on 3rd July.
“It has been a challenging season, but in particular, the result and performance in last week’s game against Huddersfield were hugely disappointing for me and everybody involved with the club,” Jepson said.
“The board felt that a change of direction was therefore needed.”
McGuire subsequently returned to AMT Headingley after joining the Leeds Rhinos Foundation in a newly created role as Rugby League Impact and Growth Manager.
37 Leeds Rhinos sign Kallum Watkins
Kallum Watkins was an iconic player for Leeds Rhinos, making his debut for the club in 2008 and staying at Headingley until 2019, making 259 appearances and scoring 132 tries and 101 goals before leaving in the middle of the season to join the NRL’s Gold Coast Titans, for whom he played six times that season but suffered a rib injury. He started the 2020 season with two matches before returning home because his father had contracted the Covid virus.
He then signed for Salford and played 96 games, scoring 28 tries, before that club’s financial problems caused him to return to Headingley for the rest of the season. And his signing proved to be an inspired one, as Watkins played 21 games, scoring four tries and a goal. And his form saw him return to the England Test team for the Ashes series against Australia.
Watkins already had 29 caps for England, including appearing at three consecutive World Cups for the national side and he played in the second and third Tests at Everton and Headingley.
“It is unusual that a player of Kallum’s quality becomes available mid-season,” said Leeds coach Brad Arthur.
“Since losing Maika Sivo before the season, Ian (Blease) has been working hard to add experience to the depth of our playing group and Kallum certainly does that.”
36 Warrington Academy successful tour of Australia
Warrington Wolves Academy enjoyed an outstanding season, going undefeated in the Academy League and then winning the Academy Grand Final against Leeds Rhinos in September.
Coached by Daniel Hill, the Wire youngsters then embarked on a historic three-week tour of Australia, playing matches against their equivalents at Penrith Panthers and Gold Coast Titans, either side of facing a New South Wales representative team.
They began the tour with an impressive 50-10 win over Penrith, scoring nine tries including two each from wingers Alex Wilson and Jack Fallon.
Their outstanding young halfback Ewan Irwin then inspired a late comeback from eight points down to draw 30-30 with New South Wales.
They then suffered their sole defeat in the final game, going down 18-6 to Gold Coast.
While down under they had a training session led by NRL Immortal and former Wire player Andrew Johns.
Warrington’s head of youth, Ryan O’Brien, reflected: “The tour has been an unbelievable experience for our players and staff.
“We have come up against some of the best players in the world for their age, trained in some unbelievable facilities, and gained invaluable insight into how a number of NRL clubs operate.
“Most importantly, our players have learnt life lessons, strengthened friendships, and made memories that will stay with them for a lifetime.”
35 Brisbane win the NRL Premiership
Brisbane Broncos, under their new coach Michael Maguire, had an extraordinary season that culminated in them winning a thrilling NRL Grand Final, defeating Melbourne Storm 26-22 in the Grand Final in Sydney after being 22-12 down at half-time.
It was their first Grand Final victory since beating Melbourne in the 2006 decider and the star of the show was Broncos’ fullback Reece Walsh, who scored two tries and made three crucial defensive reads that clinched the game for his team.
Walsh was a convincing winner of the Clive Churchill Medal as the Grand Final man of the match.
Earlier in the season the Broncos had struggled outside the top eight, sitting in eleventh place with five wins from twelve game and questions being asked about Maguire’s tough training regime.
But the tide began to turn in the second half of the season and they won ten of their last twelve games to finish fourth in the final ladder.
In the play-offs the Broncos registered remarkable comebacks, recovering from being 28-12 down to win 29-28 against Canberra and they came back from 14-0 down against Canberra in the preliminary final.
The Grand Final achieved record TV ratings for an NRL game, becoming the single biggest sporting event for 2025 with 4.46 million Australians tuning in to watch, up 33% on audiences for the 2024 decider.
Those figures are particularly appropriate, given that the NRL is currently planning its next broadcasting deal.
34 Perth Bears announced as the NRL’s 18th team
In May the NRL and the Western Australian government announced that the NRL competition will officially expands to 18 teams in 2027 with the addition of the Perth Bears.
The move to Perth marks the return of professional Rugby League to Western Australia for the first time in three decades, since the Western Reds exited the competition in 1997 and it takes the NRL closer to being a truly national competition.
Western Australia’s government revealed that it has committed A$65.6 million over seven years to support the new franchise.
“This is a great day for sports fans and a great day for the WA economy,” Western Australia Premier Roger Cook said.
“We’ve secured a new WA NRL club, and every dollar in direct financial assistance from the government will be spent right here in WA.”
The team’s name, the Perth Bears, pays tribute to the historic North Sydney Bears – a foundation club that was part of the inaugural Australian season in 1908.
The Bears played in the top tier until 1999 but became a casualty in the Rugby League restructure after the Super League war, while also facing their own financial struggles.
Perth’s first major signing was revealed as Leeds Rhinos star Harry Newman.
33 London Broncos relocate their HQ
Rugby League in London has never had its own headquarters, but that is no longer the case after London Broncos revealed that the Hazelwood Centre in Sunbury-on-Thames will become the club’s new home.
For the new season, the men’s first team, the reserves and the women’s team will all train at Hazelwood, with the reserves and women’s sides also playing their home fixtures there with the Broncos becoming the primary tenants of the facility, which was previously the HQ of the London Irish rugby union club before it went into liquidation.
The Hazelwood Centre is set within 63 acres of landscaped grounds, with four full-size grass pitches, an all-weather 4G surface, a state-of-the-art gym, dedicated medical and recovery areas, and a spacious clubhouse with a large social area and office accommodation.
The club’s administrative base and training operations will now be based at Hazelwood, giving the club a dedicated venue for all its squads to work alongside one another.
The men’s teams have already begun their pre-season training at Hazelwood, with the senior squad using the ground as their full-time base, while still playing their home matches at Wimbledon AFC’s stadium.
The Hazelwood Centre could be the best training base in the whole of British Rugby League and it will be pivotal as the club looks to establishing itself under its new ownership of Darren Lockyer and Grant Wechsel.
32 IRL accuses RFL of owing £400,000
A row broke out in November between the International Rugby League (IRL) and the RFL about monies that the IRL Chairman Troy Grant alleged was owed by the RFL to the IRL three years on from the World Cup that was played in England in 2022.
Grant threatened that England could be denied prize money and appearance fees, with players robbed of official Test caps at next year’s World Cup, if the RFL refuses to pay the alleged debt, which he claims is in excess of £400,000.
He even raised the matter with Sport England, the organisation that oversees the conduct of sports governing bodies.
“England needs to get their heads out of the sand like ostriches and honour their debt and commitment to the game globally,” Grant said.
“They need to pay up or the IRL would have no alternative but to investigate sanctions. That’s the decent and right thing to do and it’s the only thing we will accept.”
But the RFL’s interim chief executive Abi Ekoku hit back, insisting that the RFL doesn’t owe the IRL anything.
“It’s actually quite clear,” Ekoku told League Express.
“There is a historic debt from the 2021 World Cup, which was actually played in 2022.
“There was a World Cup operating company, which is standard procedure.
“But that deficit was owed by Rugby World Cup 2021, which was the Special Purpose Vehicle set up for the purpose of hosting the tournament.
“There is no liability on the part of the RFL. The IRL appear to be claiming the liability, but they haven’t provided any documentation to support that claim.”
31 St Helens appoint Paul Rowley
On 17th October St Helens announced that they had appointed former Salford coach Paul Rowley on a three-year contract to replace the recently-departed Paul Wellens.
St Helens had won the Super League title for four years in a row from 2019 to 2022, but failed to win the title under Wellens and their supporters had not just been unhappy about that, but also about their uninspiring style of play, which was in marked contrast to Salford’s play under Rowley.
“We warmly welcome Paul Rowley as our new head coach. He is both experienced and talented, and we feel that he is now ready to coach a leading club such as St Helens,” said Saints Chairman Eamonn McManus.
“He is well aware of our objectives and our ambitions, and we consider that he is capable of achieving them.
“I’m sure that our fans will get behind him as we seek to get back to the top of the Super League competition. We wish him every success.”
Rowley had stood by Salford in a traumatic season for the club, but he admitted he was now hoping for more sustained success with his new club.
“I can’t wait for that home atmosphere at Saints – I love Annie’s Song, that’s always been a favourite of mine so I can’t wait to hear that on a match night,” he said.
“This is a club with such a proud heritage and respect for its history, but I’m excited to be part of its future. I’ll work hard, do everything I can for the supporters.”
Image credit: Bernard Platt