Where every rugby league club ranks for performance on the IMG grades ahead of Super League expansion

With just one game of the 2025 domestic rugby league season to play, the IMG performance points scores are in with a shock name in third.

That one final game, the Super League Grand Final, will determine plenty in who ultimately finishes top of the performance metrics but with both Wigan Warriors and Hull KR comfortable Grade A clubs anyway, the IMG points won’t matter too much.

Of course, the actual Grand Final will matter immensely for both clubs with success on field being every club’s ultimate goal and that’s been one of the criticisms of the IMG grading process – that too much emphasis is put on off-field aspects.

Perhaps that’s right as just five of the possible 20 IMG points hail from performance. All of the professional rugby league clubs are ranked 1 through 35 for their average position across the last three seasons with the top club handed 4 points, descending all the way down to 35th who claim 0.1139.

Bonus points are available with 0.75 on offer for the Super League Grand Final winners, 0.25 for the Championship Grand Final and Challenge Cup winners, and 0.1 for each of the League One and 1895 Cup winners.

With 33 of the 35 teams having their points total settled, Serious About Rugby League have worked out exactly how many points each club will score with just the 0.75 bonus points left to play for at the top.

Full IMG performance scores ranked

Whilst Super League will expand via panel ahead of next season, the top twelve places will be determined by IMG grades and that’s why Toulouse’s Championship Grand Final win, and the 0.25 points that came with it, are massive for their chances.

They rank 13th for performance with 2.6285 points, however, the additional points take them to 2.8785 points. Having finished 13th across the full IMG grading in 2024, the Olympians will fancy their chances at promotion.

On the other hand, York have missed out on those points and by losing that game they also rank 16th on performance, not 15th so another minor points increase was missed.

As for those who will be in Super League, Leigh have made the huge jump to third as the 2022 season, the year they were in the Championship, is wiped from the three-year average.

Despite an improved season for Leeds Rhinos, they suffer as they lose their 2022 Grand Final finish and replace it with a fifth-placed finish based on when they were knocked out of the play-offs. As such, they rank seventh and are below Catalans.

New boys Goole score the lowest due to the fact they have no data for 2023 and 2024, therefore ranked lowest in those years by default.

Super League hopefuls Oldham have flown up the rankings and now sit 17th after their impressive 2024 campaign.

It’s worth noting that we have calculated what Keighley Cougars would have scored but the club have already confirmed that they entered their data late and would therefore score zero.

Below is the full table of every club’s performance score with their bonus points added. For example, Hull KR rank second on the three-year average so scored 3.8857, but their 0.25 Challenge Cup bonus takes them to 4.1357.

1st: Hull KR – 4.1357 (includes 0.25 Challenge Cup bonus)
2nd: Wigan Warriors – 4.000
3rd: Leigh Leopards – 3.7714
4th: St Helens – 3.6571
5th: Warrington Wolves – 3.5428
6th: Catalans Dragons – 3.4285
7th: Leeds Rhinos – 3.31432
8th: Salford Red Devils – 3.2000
9th: Hull FC – 3.0856
10th: Huddersfield Giants – 2.9713
11th: Toulouse Olympique – 2.8786 (includes 0.25 Championship Grand Final bonus)
12th: Wakefield Trinity – 2.8571
13th: Castleford Tigers – 2.7428
14th: Bradford Bulls – 2.5142
15th: London Broncos – 2.4000
16th: York Knights – 2.3857 (includes 0.1 1895 Cup bonus)
17th: Featherstone Rovers – 2.1713
18th: Halifax Panthers – 2.0570
19th: Widnes Vikings – 1.9427
20th: Sheffield Eagles – 1.8284
21st: Batley Bulldogs – 1.7141
22nd: Barrow Raiders – 1.6000
23rd: Doncaster – 1.4855
24th: Swinton Lions – 1.3714
25th: Oldham – 1.2569
26th: Dewsbury Rams – 1.1426
27th: Whitehaven – 1.0283
28th: Hunslet – 0.914
29th North Wales Crusaders – 0.9 (includes 0.1 League One bonus)
30th: Keighley Cougars – 0.6854
31st: Workington Town- 0.5714
32nd: Rochdale Hornets – 0.4571
33rd: Midlands Hurricanes- 0.3429
34th: Newcastle Thunder – 0.2286
35th: Goole Vikings – 0.1143

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