With the 2023 NRL season nearing, we list the crop of rookies from each club worth keeping tabs on as they aim to join the elite list of budding stars with a Rookie of the Year award to their name.
As per the NRL, “players are eligible for the Rookie of the Year in their debut season and the subsequent two NRL seasons … Once a player plays five (5) NRL Premiership matches (or English Super League matches), he becomes ineligible for the Rookie of the Year in any subsequent seasons”.
Brendan Piakura
Having appeared in two NRL games over the past two seasons, Piakura looks poised to take the leap from promising youngster to regular first-grader this season. An athletic edge forward who has not yet turned 21, Piakura scored nine tries in 21 games for Norths last season in Queensland Cup and broke 22 tackles across his final five. He wore maroon in U16s and U18s Origin coming through the grades and made his international debut for the Cook Islands last June before traveling to the UK for the World Cup later in the year. With Zac Hosking departing the club and T.C. Robati currently stood down, Piakura finds himself skyrocketing up the depth chart and could come into the selection frame for Brisbane’s Round 1 clash in Penrith.
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Deine Mariner
Mariner made his NRL debut last season as a 19-year-old and looked a fine prospect from the outset. In the two matches he appeared in, he ran for a combined 229 metres from 23 carries, broke four tackles, and made 19 tackles with just one miss. He did not get a tonne of chances to show off his electric pace at NRL level but did score eight tries in eight outings for Wynnum-Manly including a four-try, 217-metre effort against Burleigh in Round 1. Across a three-game stretch for Wynnum-Manly later in the year, he scored three tries, made four line-breaks, broke 23 tackles and ran for 476 metres. With Kotoni Staggs and Herbie Farnworth having developed into one of the premiership’s premier centre-pairings, first-grade time may prove hard to come by for Mariner but, given the two have missed a combined 37 games over the past two seasons, the teenager will need to stay ready for head coach Kevin Walters.
Xavier Willison
Willison is in a position not too dissimilar to that of Piakura; he has played in handful of NRL games over the past two seasons but appears ready to make the leap this season. A 6-foot-3, 108-kilogram prop, Willison came off the bench in three games in 2021 – scoring a try in Brisbane’s Round 21 loss to Newcastle – before suffering a torn ACL that ended his season. He was given just the lone opportunity in 2022, coming off the bench in Brisbane’s Origin-affected win over the Dragons in Round 17. In the five games he played 50 or more minutes for Norths this past season, he averaged 115 run metres and 25 tackles and broke nine tackles. At just 20, Willison will be eager to play his way into Brisbane’s middle rotation and make a mark alongside the likes of Payne Haas, Patrick Carrigan, and Thomas Flegler.
Blake Mozer
A highly-touted Keebra Park graduate, Mozer was re-signed by the Broncos until at least the end of 2025 midway through last year before starting at nine for the Queensland U19s in June. He made three appearances off the bench for Souths Logan in Queensland Cup towards the midpoint of 2022. Despite being fast-tracked into Brisbane’s Top 30 and earning the praises of Broncos great Darren Lockyer, odds are Mozer will be overlooked for a spot in Brisbane’s 17 with the likes of Billy Walters and Cory Paix ahead of him on the depth chart to start the season, however, he may come further into calculations as the year progresses. Mozer is the only recognised hooker in Brisbane’s top squad aside from Walters and Paix meaning he could be presented an opportunity to stake his claim for the nine jersey should either of his peers miss time.
