Each season, players pack up and leave to other clubs. Some are seeking a fresh start. Others are seeking more money. Some want to play for big clubs and under great coaches to improve their game and win premierships. Others are just looking for a lifeline and will take any contract they can get their hands on. This is a list in no particular order of the top 10 best new signings of 2018. As soon as the big Englishman was forced out of the Bulldogs due to their basket case of a salary cap, the Dragons pounced and signed him for 3 years. Considering he will be 35 by the time his contract ends, this move was somewhat risky on the part of the Dragons. Graham has been a workhorse on the field and a leader off it for the Dragons this year. Or how he averages 48 minutes, 90m, 11 runs and 22 tackles per game. He came on board at the Dragons with 360 first grade games Super League and NRL under his belt, 8 of which were grand finals albeit he only won one. On the rare occasion that he does, you would be mad not to try sign him. Time will tell whether the Dragons made a mistake by signing him for so long. One thing is for sure though — right now, they love this man in Kogarah and Wollongong. Arriving via stints at the Auckland Blues, St George Illawarra Dragons and Brisbane Broncos, Benji would have had low expectations about his role in the first-grade side given the presence of both Luke Brooks and marquee recruit Josh Reynolds in the squad. From there, we saw him continue his evolution as a player, which we saw from him at the Broncos and to a lesser extent the Dragons, going from elite game-breaker to cool, calm and collected game-manager. Marshall led the Tigers to three particularly impressive upset victories early in the season — one against the Roosters and two against the Storm. While Marshall is currently injured, expect him to return to the bench, if not the starting side when he regains his fitness. Green has been a journeyman his whole career the Warriors are his 8th professional club. He was in and out of first-grade in the early days while with the Sharks, Bulldogs and Eels. But it was a four-year Super League sabbatical with Hull KR and the Wigan that saw him finally achieve the consistency he was capable of. He returned to the NRL with the Storm in 2015 where he acted as a fantastic foil for Cooper Cronk for two years, before signing with Manly in 2017 on a multi-year deal. Now Green finds himself in leading around the park a top-4 Warriors team that many predicted would run last. At one point this season he was even mentioned as an NSW Origin bolter. If the Warriors end up doing anything this season, a lot of it will be put down to the stability, calmness, and game-management offered by Green. Benji Marshall, Josh Reynolds, Russell Packer and Ben Matulino all come to mind. However, he quickly cemented his place in the starting side by putting together a string of positive performances, including scoring the match-winning try against the Roosters in round 1. Due to the injury and form struggles of Tuimoala Lolohea, Thompson has switched regularly between wing and fullback. However, he looks set to remain on the wing for the rest of the season with mid-season recruit Moses Mbye set to lock down the fullback position. These are incredible figures considering his diminutive stature 179cm and 92kg. He played 24 games for Brisbane between 2016 and 2017, but was stuck behind the likes of Joe Ofahengaue, Tevita Pangai Jnr, Korbin Sims and Sam Thaiday. With the presence of those players, plus the impending arrivals of Matthew Lodge and Sam Tagataese, Arrow saw the writing on the wall and headed south down the M1 to the Titans, where he has played every game this season except one which he missed due to State of Origin duty. Upon moving to the Titans, Arrow has displayed the potential that many knew he was capable of. This year he has run for 1816m the most of any Titan and 5th most of any front-rower , made 20 offloads 5th most of any front-rower and made 367 tackles 9th most of any front-rower. At just 22 years of age and with this kind of form on display, he will be part of the QLD set up for a long time. The Titans will want to keep him around too. Simply put, Big Herman is a no-nonsense workhorse who just goes about his business doing the little things right for the Knights. However, the amount of work he gets through in that relatively short amount of time is astounding. So far this year he has averaged 115m and 29 tackles per game. Even more impressive than that especially for a front-rower is his tackle efficiency, missing just 25 out of 403. He will be hoping that Herman can keep it up for the impending return of Mitchell Pearce, as the club makes a last-minute dash for a top-8 berth. At the end of 2017, barely a year removed from steering Cronulla to its first premiership, Jimmy Maloney found himself once again on the move in search of more money. The Panthers are currently fourth, and Maloney has 11 try-assists to his name. He started off playing five-eighth, and then when Nathan Cleary got injured he switched to halfback like it was nothing then back to five-eighth when Cleary returned. When he signed he was a fringe representative player and starting halfback for Brisbane. Plenty changed for Hunt over the course of 2017. He got dropped to reserve-grade, losing his halfback spot to Kodi Nikorima. After helping his Broncos to within one game of the 2017 Grand Final, he arrived at the Dragons with everyone insisting that his best position was hooker. McGregor stood his ground and kept Hunt at halfback — a move that proved to be a masterstroke. Hunt has been exceptional for the Dragons this year. His arrival at the Dragons has freed up five-eighth and captain Gareth Widdop to become one of the most dangerous players in the competition. Hunt himself has been dangerous too, racking up 3 tries, 12 try-assists, 40 tackle busts pretty amazing for any player let alone a halfback and 23 offloads also amazing for a halfback. Most tellingly, his team has been in first place for all but one week of 2018. He came to the shire seeking a fresh start under coach Shane Flanagan, after struggling with the burden of captaincy in his last couple of years at Penrith. It was a somewhat shaky start to the season for Moylan as he was swapped regularly between fullback and five-eighth and struggled to find consistency. It was his permanent move to five-eighth in round 7 that saw both Moylan and his Sharks finally find some consistency on the field, as they went on a 6-match winning streak which lasted until round 12. They now find themselves in 7th place just one win out of the top four. If the Sharks are to finish in the top 4 and challenge for the premiership, it will have to be off the back of some Moylan brilliance. We had all seen glimpses of his potential from sporadic appearances for his first club the North QLD Cowboys over the last 2 seasons. But seeing him play first grade week-in-week-out has been one of the true highlights of NRL season 2018 so far. This kid came to the Knights under a lot of pressure. But Ponga has made the change seem easy. He has 13 try-assists to his name 4th most in the NRL , 5 tries, and averages nearly 120m run per game. He also just made his QLD Origin debut off the bench, slicing the NSW defense in two and coming within inches of scoring a match-winning try for QLD. Did anyone miss our Top 10 list that you think deserves to be on it? Let us know in the comments below.
