The 2023 NRL season will be the earliest kick-off in 22-years, lasting 31 weeks and in a major shock for fans, every club will have three byes.
The game’s historic expansion to a 17 team competition with the inclusion of The Dolphins makes it the most complex and jam-packed NRL schedule on record.
In a massive win for fans, the regular season will be run over 27 rounds with four weeks of finals.
Such is the mind-numbing proposition of creating a balanced draw for 17 teams, the finished product is almost impossible to be deemed even or fair.
It’s more than possible your favourite team will play only half of the competition once.
The Tigers, Warriors, Knights and Titans are already praying they are the teams that draw Penrith, South Sydney, the Cowboys or Parramatta just once.
The scheduling conundrum has emerged as a result of club CEO’s being given a draft proposal of key dates by the NRL in order to begin planning their team’s pre-season training schedules.
Thursday night March 2 next year - one week earlier than the kick-off date of this current season - is the opening round launch date that every club has been told to prepare for.
It is the earliest start to a season since the 2001 season which launched on February 17.
Pre-season matches are poised to formally begin on the weekend of February 10-12 with staging of the NRL’s Indigenous and Maori All Stars clash in Rotorua, on top of every club’s first official trial matches.
Following it’s ratings success this season, every trial match will again be televised live on Fox League.
The annual Charity Shield between South Sydney and St George-Illawarra, as well as a second weekend of club trial matches, is being slated by the NRL for February 17-19.
Every club will be given a weekend off from footy on February 24-26 in order to rest before the season-proper commences on March 2.
NRL PROPOSED SCHEDULE FOR 2023 NRL SEASON
10-12 February: 1st weekend of trials and NRL Maori and Indigenous All Stars in Rotorua
17-19 February: 2nd weekend of trials and annual Charity Shield
24-26 February: Footy free weekend
2-5 March: 2023 NRL kick off
27 rounds - each team plays 24 games.
Three byes for all 17 teams.
Due to the upcoming World Cup and subsequent annual leave requirements for players, the pre-season will need to be the most specific in years.
The high performance staff of every club will never be more important.
The NRL is confident in their pre-season scheduling having spoken with senior players, who the NRL claim would rather find their fitness through playing matches, than training.
However, some clubs, having received the NRL’s proposed schedule, have privately questioned why, after a World Cup, the Indigenous and Maori All Stars clash wasn’t suspended for one year.
Coaches, as we‘ve seen from Cowboys mentor Todd Payten, often refer back to their pre-season as the makings of their subsequent success.
Yet in 2023, the hangover from this year’s World Cup will severely impact the game’s best player’s preparation for the new season, particularly any player who plays in next week’s grand final, who without having a break, then go onto play in the World Cup final on November 19.
It’s possible that if New Zealand make the World Cup final, a player like Penrith and Kiwi Test prop James Fisher Harris, after taking his accrued eight weeks annual leave following the tournament, may have a pre-season of just five weeks before round one.
The Dolphins are also facing a shocking start to their existence.
Their entire leadership group of Kiwi stars Jesse Bromwich, Kenny Bromwich and Felise Kaufusi are all featuring in the World Cup, meaning they will miss a huge chunk of the club‘s first pre-season.
It’s only for the fact that all three former Storm stars have already served two weeks of annual leave due to Melbourne’s early elimination from the finals that their absence will be somewhat allayed by missing six weeks of what will be a club-defining inaugural pre-season.
It’s the Dolphins inclusion to the NRL that has created an odd number of teams, forcing the NRL to pencil in three byes for every club throughout next season.
The trio of byes is a huge win for players constantly seeking respite from one of the most brutal sports in the world.
However, clubs are already nervous about when they will receive their bye.
It wouldn’t be rugby league without a blow-up and you can time your clock to the rage from those clubs that receive their byes in the opening rounds of the season, when a fast start is largely the craving of every head coach.
Alternatively, some clubs will be treated to a Round 27 bye.
It is the closest the NRL have come to copying the AFL‘s bye round, providing club’s with a week-off right before the finals series.
As the AFL has found, a week off for a player striving to overcome injury ahead of the finals, could prove season-defining.
Additionally, State of Origin will be played across three straight Wednesday’s with no Thursday night NRL games scheduled that week.
To increase the chance of recovery for the game’s elite, the NRL are also investigating shifting the 6pm Friday night game to a Sunday afternoon in the week of a State of Origin match.
The NRL have also told clubs to submit their preferred home matches, including derbies and Magic Round match-ups.
Due to the complexities of the 2023 season draw, the NRL are unlikely to release the finished product until late November.
