Right now, unless you're a fan of the Panthers, Storm or Roosters, you've been waiting a while to see your team experience premiership success.
But for some the drought has been much longer.
With the Warriors still yet to find glory and clubs like the Bulldogs, Eels, Knights and Raiders having gone over 20 years without a title win, the NRL.com team give their pick on which of those long-suffering fanbases has the most hope of winning the big one in 2025.
Who's most likely to end their multi-decade premiership drought?
Brad Walter: The Bulldogs have been gradually building a roster that can challenge for premierships and their impressive second half of the 2024 season suggested 2025 may be the year they are finally ready to do so. Matt Burton was the first key signing in 2022, followed by Reed Mahoney and Viliame Kikau in 2024 and Stephen Crichton, Josh Curran and Kurt Mann last season. Next season they will be joined by Sitili Tupouniua and Marcelo Montoya, while Jacob Kiraz, Jacob Preston and Mitchell Woods have emerged through the club's reinvigorated pathways. With Cameron Ciraldo now in his third season as coach and Stephen Crichton proving himself to be a great leader, the Bulldogs will be one of the teams to beat.
2024 Dally M Captain of the Year: Stephen Crichton
Cameron Mee: The Bulldogs stunning run to the finals in 2024 came a year ahead of schedule for many experts but there's no stopping their rapid trajectory. While they had their hearts broken in front of more than 50,000 fans in the opening week of the finals, expect Canterbury to take another giant leap forward next season. A leap so big, in fact, that not only will they challenge for the top four but they will emerge as a genuine threat to Penrith's stranglehold on the competition. Cameron Ciraldo has another year to imprint his style on the team and Stephen Crichton will take another giant leap forward as captain and an elite centre, laying the foundation for a charge to the title.
Colleen Edwards: The footy gods work in mysterious ways and go by their own script - otherwise Shaun Johnson would have retired in 2023 as a premiership winner who guided the Warriors to their maiden title. While that fairytale never eventuated, the 2025 season shapes as one of promise for the 'Wahs, despite the departure of Johnson and Golden Boot nominee Addin Fonua-Blake. After reaching the great heights of 2023 only to fall flat in 2024, Andrew Webster's charges have taken many valuable lessons out of the past two seasons. Led by new signing and four-time premiership winner James Fisher-Harris, they are well placed to make history next season.
From the field: Fisher-Harris
Corey Rosser: Maintaining the huge defensive leap you took a season earlier is no given in the NRL; just ask the Warriors who fell away substantially in that area, and subsequently out of the top eight, between 2023-24. But the Bulldogs' roster looks well equipped to go again and take the next step, which for them will be cracking a top four spot after finishing just short last time around. From there they will be a genuine chance of adding their first title since 2004 under the masterful coaching of Cameron Ciraldo.
Martin Lenehan: The 2024 season was simply too bad to be true for the Warriors and they will rebound hard in '25 - and what better way to celebrate their 30th anniversary in the big time than by winning a maiden premiership. The acquisition of four-time premiership winning prop James Fisher-Harris could well prove the most astute signing in the club's history and he will drive the standards for the club's rising stars to follow. The Warriors boast an array of brilliant finishers out wide and they'll get every chance to shine with JFH and Mitch Barnett laying the platform and Luke Metcalf and Te Maire Martin providing slick service.
