An intriguing battle for the 2023 Ken Irvine Medal is unfolding, with Newcastle winger Dominic Young (19 tries) opening up a lead at the top of the NRL’s try charts.
Gold Coast rookie Alofiana Khan-Pereira (17), Parramatta duo Clint Gutherson and Maika Sivo, Cronulla’s Ronald Mulitalo and reborn Warrior Dallin Watene-Zelezniak (all 16) are all right in the mix, with another five players on 15 tries with six rounds remaining.
Meanwhile, a host of club records are under serious threat: most tries in a season marks at the Knights, Titans, Sharks and Warriors look likely to fall before the season is out.
Check out the story behind every NRL club’s season tryscoring record – and the prospects of them being broken.
Brisbane Broncos: 23 – Steve Renouf (1994) and Darren Smith (1998)
An untouchable centre who scored 142 tries in 183 first-grade games for Brisbane, Steve Renouf smashed the previous club record of 17 tries with a competition-high 23 touchdowns in just 21 games in 1994. Four years later, subsequent centre partner Darren Smith led the NRL with the same tally.
In the last 12 seasons, Corey Oates’ 20 tries last season is the best effort by a Broncos player – but Selwyn Cobbo, who has 15 tries in 18 games to date, is an outside chance getting close to Renouf and Smith, particularly if he can add to the two hat-tricks he’s already chalked up in 2023.
Canberra Raiders: 23 – Jordan Rapana (2016)
Fijian sensation Noa Nadruku set a new Raiders record with 22 tries in 1993, his first season in rugby league, while Brett Mullins and Jason Croker both equalled it in 1994.
As Canberra surged into the top four in 2016, winger Jordan Rapana eclipsed the mark with 23 tries and backed with 21 the following season. But no Raider has managed more than 14 since, while Matt Timoko and Albert Hopoate currently led the way in 2023 with a modest eight tries.
Canterbury Bulldogs: 23 – Nigel Vagana (2002), Ben Barba (2011) and Curtis Rona (2015)
Electric Kiwi centre Nigel Vagana smashed the Bulldogs club record of 19 (set by Chris Anderson in 1983 and equalled by Hazem El Masri in 2001) with 23 tries in their ultimately doomed 2002 campaign, including a five-try effort against Souths. He fell just one try short of his own mark in 2003.
Ben Barba repeated that feat with a record-equalling 23 tries in 2011 and 22 as he collected the Dally M Medal in 2012. The comparatively unheralded Curtis Rona joined the pair in 2015 – but Josh Addo-Carr’s 16 tries in 2022 is the best effort by a Bulldog since.
Jake Averillo leads the way this season with nine meat pies.
Cronulla Sharks: 22 – Valentine Holmes (2018)
For more than 50 years since their inception, the Sharks’ season tryscoring record sat below 20. Valentine Holmes equalled David Peachey’s 1999 mark of 19 tries during the club’s 2016 premiership season, before extending it by three in a stellar 2018 campaign – despite failing to score until Round 5.
Current wing duo Ronaldo Mulitalo and Sione Katoa both seem capable of knocking Holmes off that perch one day. Mulitalo has 16 tries already in 2023 and could challenge the club record if the Sharks climb out of their current funk.
Dolphins: N/A
The Dolphins should have an impressive tryscoring mark in their record books at the end of their debut season, with winger Jamayne Isaako and fullback/centre Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow both racking up 15 tries with a quarter of the regular season left.
Origin star Tabuai-Fidow has been especially impressive, scoring in 12 of his 16 appearances so far. Excluding joint ventures, the most tries by a player in a club’s maiden season were Sean Hoppe’s 19 for Auckland Warriors in 1995.
Gold Coast Titans: 17 – David Fifita (2021) and Alofiana Khan-Pereira (2023)*
Titans players have rarely troubled the upper reaches of the NRL tyrscoring charts since the club’s 2007 inception, with second-rower David Fifita’s 17-try haul in 2021 eclipsing the record of 16 co-held by David Mead (2011) and James Roberts (2015).
But rookie sensation Alofiana Khan-Pereira needed just 16 games to equal his teammate’s mark and is a red-hot chance of Ken Irvine Medal honours, having already picked up six doubles during his brief top-grade career.
Manly Sea Eagles: 28 – Tom Trbojevic (2021)
Tom Trbojevic’s 2021 tally of 28 tries was the most ever by a fullback, the equal-fifth-highest in premiership history and pipped Phil Blake’s club record of 27 (1983) that still stands as the most in a season by a halfback.
Incredibly, injury-prone Dally M winner ‘Turbo’ needed just 18 games to accumulate his mighty haul, chalking up five hat-tricks. Meanwhile, teammates Jason Saab’s 26 tries was the third-best in Manly’s history and Rueben Garrick’s 23 tries was equal-fourth.
Trbojevic, who is out for the season, and Garrick are the Sea Eagles’ leading tryscorers in 2023 with 10 each.
Melbourne Storm: 23 – Suliasi Vunivalu (2016 and 2017) and Josh Addo-Carr (2017 and 2021)
Matt Geyer (1999), Robbie Ross (1999) and Billy Slater (2005) co-held the Storm’s season tryscoring record with 20, until rookie Israel Folau crossed 21 times in 2021.
Another NRL newcomer, Suliasi Vunivalu, led the competition with 23 tries in 2016 – a mark Vunivalu and teammate Josh Addo-Carr equalled the following season. Helped along by the first six-try haul in 71 years, Addo-Carr matched the Storm record again in 2021 before joining the Bulldogs.
Current flyers Xavier Coates (12) and Will Warbrick (11) hit some hot tryscoring form mid-season but have likely run out of time to catch their wing predecessors this year.
Newcastle Knights: 21 – Timana Tahu (2002) and Akuila Uate (2010)
In just his second NRL campaign, Timana Tahu beat teammate Darren Albert’s 1997 Knights record of 18 tries, crossing 20 times in 2000. Two years later, he beat his own record by one.
Fijian wing wizard Akuila Uate equalled Tahu’s mark in 2010 and fell just one try short the following season on his way to becoming the first player to score a century of first-grade tries for Newcastle.
But the pair are odds on to be overtaken by Sydney Roosters-bound winger Dominic Young, who has scored an NRL-leading 19 tries in just 17 games – despite briefly being dropped earlier in the season. Teammate Greg Marzhew has also flourished on the Knights’ flank in 2023, scoring 13 tries in 14 games.
New Zealand Warriors: 23 – Francis Meli (2003) and David Fusitu’a (2018)
Blockbusting winger Francis Meli’s all-time finals record haul of five tries against the Bulldogs in 2003 propelled him a season tally of 23 tries, smashing the Warriors club record of 19 set by Sean Hoppe in their inaugural 1995 campaign.
Athletic flyer David Fusitu’a matched Meli’s mark in 2018, as well as winning the maiden Ken Irvine Medal as the NRL’s top tryscorer, with two hat-tricks and another five doubles.
No Warriors players managed a double-figure tally from 2020-22, but Dallin Watene-Zelezniak – who scored just 27 tries in his previous 100 NRL games – has managed a remarkable 16 tries in just 13 games in 2023 after missing the opening six rounds, emerging as a record-breaking threat.
North Queensland Cowboys: 22 – Matt Bowen (2007)
Mercurial fullback Matt Bowen equalled Matt Sing’s 2003 club record by scoring 21 tries in 2005, then went one better in 2007 with an NRL-leading 22. Since then, the only season tally by a Cowboy higher than 19 was Ashley Graham’s 21 touchdowns in 2012.
Jeremiah Nanai emerged as the game’s next great forward tryscorer with 17 last season. Kyle Feldt, who is just five tries short of Bowen’s all-time club record of 130, leads the Cowboys in 2023 with 10 four-pointers – but he’s currently out of the first-grade line-up.
Parramatta Eels: 24 – Semi Radradra (2015)
Gifted centre Steve Ella smashed a 33-year-old Parramatta record by scoring 23 tries in 1982. Another 33 years later, Fijian steamroller Semi Radradra set a new highwater mark for the Eels with 24 tries in a mere 18 games. Radradra racked up 22 tries in 2017 before heading off to rugby union.
Heir apparent Maika Sivo crossed 22 times in his 2019 rookie season, but after scoring 16 tries in 18 games his recent three-game suspension appears to have foiled a run at the club record. Clint Gutherson has scored a career-high 16 tries in 2023 and is an outside chance.
Penrith Panthers: 25 – Rhys Wesser (2003)
Quicksilver custodian Rhys Wesser scored 19 tries in 2002 to knock Ryan Girdler (who scored 18 tries in 1999) off the top one column of Penrith’s honours board, before demolishing his own record with 25 tries in the club’s 2003 premiership season – the most ever by a fullback at the time.
Amos Roberts fell just two tries short of Wesser’s mark as he led the NRL in 2004, his only season with the Panthers. Despite the Panthers’ recent dominance, hauls of 19 by Wesser (2006) and David Simmons (2013) are their best since.
Brian To’o leads the two-time premiers in 2023 with a modest 11 tries.
St George Illawarra Dragons: 27 – Nathan Blacklock (2001)
Freakish Tingha product Blacklock went on one of the great tryscoring runs following the St George Illawarra joint venture’s inception in 1999, scoring an NRL-high 24 tries that year, 25 in 2000 and 27 in 2001 – the most by any player since 1983 and the most by any player until 2021.
Brett Morris gave the club record a good shake with 25 tries in 24 games in 2009. No Dragons player has scored more than 16 tries in the past 12 seasons, though Mikaele Ravalawa (14 tries in 15 games) is enjoying a prolific campaign amid the club’s 2023 wreckage.
South Sydney Rabbitohs: 30 – Alex Johnston (2021 and 2022)
Alex Johnston led the NRL in his 2014 rookie season (21 tries) and in 2020 (23 tries), but he set new standards for modern-day tryscoring excellence with an incredible 30 tries in 22 games in 2021 – the third-highest tally in premiership history and one more than the Souths record set by Les Brennan in 1954.
Johnston scored another 30 tries in 25 games in 2022 – 10 clear of his nearest rival – and is currently level with Campbell Graham atop the Rabbitohs’ 2023 try charts with 15 as he continues his charge towards Ken Irvine’s hallowed premiership record of 212 career tries.
Sydney Roosters: 38 – Dave Brown (1935)
As well as setting premiership records for the most points in a match (45) that still stands and a season (244) that took 34 years to be broken, incomparable Easts centre Dave Brown’s incredible 1935 campaign included an all-time record 38 tries – from just 15 games.
‘The Bradman of League’ had two hauls of six tries, one of five and three of four in an individual season that will surely never be repeated. Newtown’s Ray Preston (34 tries in 1954) is the only other player to come anywhere near Brown’s astonishing mark.
Teammate Rod O’Loan scored 27 tries in the Tricolours’ undefeated 1935 season, the second-highest tally in club history, while the most by a Rooster in the past half century was Shaun Kenny-Dowall’s 21 in 2010.
Daniel Tupou, who needs just one try to break Anthony Minichiello’s record for most career tries for the Roosters (139), had a career-high season tally of 16, while James Tedesco leads the way for the ailing heavyweights in 2023 with just eight.
Wests Tigers: 21 – Taniela Tuiaki (2009)
Kiwi bulldozer Taniela Tuiaki crossed for 21 tries in 22 games in 2009 to eclipse Pat Richards’ mark of 20 achieved in the Tigers’ 2005 premiership campaign, collecting Dally M Winger of the Year honours along the way.
Tragically, Tuiaki suffered a horrific broken ankle injury late in the season and never played again. No Tigers player has managed more than 18 tries since, while Junior Tupou’s six touchdowns leads the way for the battling joint venture in 2023.