Think you know everything there is to know about the NRL? Think again. There are a multitude of facts about rugby league’s top tier that will come as a news to the casual fan, and plenty more that even diehards might be unaware of. Below, we’ve taken a look at four facts about the NRL you may not know.

1. The Clive Churchill Medal has only ever been won by four players from the losing side

When the Canberra Raiders’ Jack Wighton capped off a breakout season by claiming best on ground honours in the 2019 Grand Final, despite his team having narrowly lost to the Roosters, he joined an illustrious group which he would probably have preferred not to be part of. He became just the fourth Clive Churchill Medal winner in the 34 years for which it has been awarded to come from the losing side, joining fellow Raider Bradley Clyde, who accomplished the feat in 1991, as well as St. George’s Brad Mackay (1993) and Manly’s Daly Cherry-Evans (2013). Undoubtedly each of these players would have preferred to hold the Premiership Cup aloft, but achieving this honour despite a loss is testament to how dominant each of their respective performances were on the NRL’s biggest stage.

2. 2020 was the Broncos’ first ever bottom four finish

It’s no secret that the Broncos are one of the most successful teams in the NRL, having won the Premiership six times since they entered the league back in 1988, which is the most in that time. The equality which exists in the NRL, however, means that in general teams have to deal with periods of mediocrity in between their success, but more so than any other club in the league the Broncos have managed to avoid that - at least until last season. They were one of five clubs to have avoided ever ‘winning’ the Wooden Spoon up until their tumultuous 2020 season, but incredibly they had also avoided ever even finishing in the bottom four prior to last year - and only once had they dropped out of the top ten.

3. In 2011, only three clubs’ membership tallies surpassed 15,000

It’s incredible to think given the membership tallies clubs have accumulated over the past few years, but ten short years ago it was only the Rabbitohs, Bulldogs and Dragons who managed to sign up more than 15,000 paying members. The increase since then has been truly amazing. In 2019, the last full, uninterrupted season of NRL, only three teams failed to pass that number. Some of the individual teams’ numbers are incredible: the Broncos had just a tick over 10,000 members in 2011, but within six years that had swelled to nearly 35,000; the Warriors have gone from around 3,000 in 2011 to pushing 20,000 most seasons; while Penrith, who had just over 5,000 ten years ago, have exceeded the 20,000 mark every year between 2017 and 2019, and if the Panthers’ odds of $2.75 to win the Grand Final are anything to go by that number may continue to swell in the years to come. The NRL is hugely dependent on broadcast deals in an era in which plenty of Australian sports coverage is heading to pay TV, but membership numbers increasing as substantially as they have of late provides a massive financial boost for its clubs.

4. Karmichael Hunt’s return will signal the second longest break from the league in history

34-year-old Karmichael Hunt recently returned to the NRL arena, playing for the Broncos in his first game since way back in 2009. That 12-year hiatus was the second longest stint between drinks for any player in Australia’s top level of rugby league ever, with Vic Hey having set the record at 13 years between 1935 and 1948. Hey’s absence, however, was a little more traditional; he spent most of that time playing for Leeds in England. Hunt’s time away has been spent a little more sporadically. When he first left the league in 2009, he did so to join the AFL’s newest club, the Gold Coast Suns, it was widely viewed as a marketing move to drum up support for the team in a rugby-centric market. Unsurprisingly he didn’t make the grade, but controversy sells in sport and as a result, the five years he spent on the Suns’ list probably achieved - at least to an extent - what it was intended to. Between 2015 and 2020 he was playing rugby union in the Super Rugby competition, before returning to the struggling Broncos for the tail-end of what has been a unique sporting career.

Whether you’re a diehard supporter or more of a casual fan, there’s always new information to learn about the NRL. From the Broncos unparalleled ability to avoid bottoming out to Karmichael Hunt’s prolonged absence from the league, the above four are some of the most surprising facts about the NRL.