The NRL off-season is a whacky time of year for fans of the game.
No rugby league on means we drift to thinking about concepts, ideas, things that keep the brain ticking – like why the Wests Tigers board is imploding again, or what the competition would look like without a salary cap.
So here at Zero Tackle, we thought why not have a bit of off-season fun to pass some time.
What if we put five of us in a room – okay, a virtual room – and said, pick your ideal rugby league team, draft style, but you can’t pick more than one player from each 2026 NRL roster.
17 teams, 17 spots. You must pick a player from each club, no exception.
The strategies that followed were varied. Some simply took the best players available, and some took the clubs they thought would be difficult to fill from.
Here is how things went for editor Scott Pryde, founder Matt Clements, and writers Isaac Issa, Ethan Lee Chalk and Dan Nichols, with all picks in a snake order.
First, the teams in team list order.
And here is how every pick played out.