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Four months on since Hull KR wrapped up a clean sweep of trophies in 2025, Super League makes its return as it celebrates its 30th birthday.
Three new clubs join an expanded league, there have been signings aplenty, another trip to Las Vegas coming up and it is a World Cup year too.
But what should you watch out for as the 'greatest game' makes its comeback for another season?
BBC Sport has taken a look at some things to focus on when the curtain opens on the 2026 campaign on Thursday.
Three new faces as Super League expands
Thirty years after the inaugural Super League season got under way with 12 teams, this year the competition has expanded to 14 sides.
It is the first time since 2014 the league has operated with 14 teams having previously dipped down to 12 from the 2015 season.
With Salford dropping out at the end of last season, the league will welcome three clubs – two of which have played in the top flight before.
Bradford Bulls and Toulouse Olympique have both featured in Super League in the past but newcomers York Knights will make their debut this season as the sport continues to expand outside its traditional heartlands.
Knights, whose women's team York Valkyrie have enjoyed plenty of success in the Women's Super League, were selected to join rugby league's top flight by an independent panel along with Toulouse, who come back to the top table following a one-season stint in 2022.
The panel judged applications against each club's financial performance in 2025, as well as their financial performance and sustainability forecasts for 2026 to 2028 and their ability to "field a competitive team in 2026 and beyond".
Headlined by the high-profile signing of Paul Vaughan from Warrington, York have ushered in a total of 14 new faces as they aim to hit the ground running in their maiden top-flight campaign.
Toulouse, meanwhile, welcome Wigan's Tyler Dupree on a season-long loan, hoping to establish themselves alongside Catalans as the league's French representation.
- Super League to expand to 14 teams from 2026
- York and Toulouse to play in expanded Super League
- Bradford replace Salford in Super League for 2026
Bradford return to the top flight
To those of a certain vintage, Bradford Bulls and Super League success are synonymous.
The club dominated the early Super League era, clinching four league titles and two Challenge Cups during their late 1990s and early 2000s heyday.
Formerly a dominant force, the club lost their top-flight status in 2015 with Wigan Warriors, Leeds Rhinos and St Helens taking it in turns to dominate after Bradford ran out of steam.
During their 11-year absence, the club has been plagued with financial troubles and had a stint in the former third-tier League One but, off the back of last season's grading system, they return to Super League.
Iconic head coach Brian Noble came back to the club last season and steered them to third in the Championship but they will enter the 2026 campaign under the stewardship of highly-rated former Salford coach Kurt Haggerty.
"The work we've done leading to round one has been probably more stressful than what's coming ahead," Haggerty told BBC Radio Leeds.
"We've had a lot of stress before we kicked a ball so if I can remain as calm as I have done up to now, I think we'll be ok and I'll be ok.
"There's a lot of good people around me like Brian Noble who I can rely on and get advice from if I need it."
Bradford, Toulouse and York have all had to piece together their respective squads for the 2026 season from October onwards, meaning it has been a mad dash to the line for the newcomers to contest the season.
Asked what his ambition was for the coming campaign, Haggerty added: "I think if we come away from this year with a load of respect, I'll be happy with that."
Goodbye to loop fixtures and Salford
The expansion to 14 teams means the previously maligned loop fixtures are no more.
The format was introduced when the league was reduced to 12 sides and ensured that every team played 27 games over the course of a regular season.
In order for that to happen, however, four of those matches would be so-called loop fixtures where some clubs would face each other again during the regular season based on the final league table from the previous campaign.
This structure would occasionally lead to some teams having a pretty lopsided campaign – as was the case with St Helens last season, who virtually had a free hit against a chaotic Salford Red Devils side on three occasions while other clubs arguably had a more difficult run-in.
This led to criticism from many a coach over many a season but returning to a 14-team set-up means the regular season will now consist of 13 home games, 13 away and one Magic Weekend fixture played at a neutral venue – which this year takes place at Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium.
One side who will not feature in Super League this term are former Grand Finalists Salford.
The formerly named Red Devils endured a torrid 2025 campaign due to financial issues and frequently fielded youthful sides who were on the receiving end of some demoralising drubbings.
The club lost their place in Super League due to the end-of-season gradings and were later placed into liquidation by the High Court in December, which plunged its future into doubt.
However, former player Mason Caton-Brown led a consortium to take over the club – now running under the Salford RLFC moniker – as they frantically put together the shell of a side to contest the 2026 Championship season in a matter of weeks after being given the go ahead from the Rugby Football League.
Hull KR keeping connection in World Cup year
Hull KR come into the 2026 season off the back of a campaign which saw them win a clean sweep of Challenge Cup, League Leaders' Shield and the Super League Grand Final.
That success has shattered the glass ceiling as Willie Peters' side muscled their way in to the northern hemisphere elite, becoming only the fifth club in Super League history to win a Grand Final.
But will their dominance be tested? After all, Wigan came into last season off the back of a historic quadruple of trophies, yet they could not mount a challenge against Hull KR and came away at the end of the season empty-handed.
St Helens, Leeds and Leigh Leopards have recruited well as they look to dethrone the Robins, who also have a trip to Las Vegas to face the Rhinos and next week's World Club Challenge against National Rugby League premiers Brisbane Broncos to contend with in a packed calendar in the early part of the season.
There has been some turnover at the Robins, with Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Micky McIlorum retiring after October's showpiece, but the club have kept the spine of what has made them so successful in recent seasons.
Talismanic half-back Mikey Lewis signed a huge five-year deal before the 2025 season ended and balancing the old and new is crucial to inspiring success in the future, KR forward Dean Hadley said.
"You look at any successful team, whatever sport that might be and they always have a core group of players and people, which includes the staff," he told BBC Radio Humberside.
"When you've got a group where the majority have been together, you build relationships and connections and you get used to each other.
"Off the back of that it's important to bring in a few new additions and new energy. The boys that have come in have been really good and added to it but the majority of us have been together now for two or three years and hopefully we can carry on."
What adds some extra spice to the season is the fact there is a World Cup at the end of it, as England's best and brightest aim to put themselves in the picture for a spot in the squad that will travel to Australia in October.
With Peters "keen" to have talks for the role of England boss after the departure of Shaun Wane, how many of his KR cohort will be on the plane down under later this year?
