Teams play 24 matches across the regular season, and although there are flaws in this - not playing everyone twice, teams weakened by State of Origin, and so on - this method does provide a fairly good sense of who the best team for that year is.
That team is awarded the minor premiership...
...which is then completely dismissed as meaningless because of a four-week tournament known as "the NRL finals", where the minor premiers and 4th place have the same starting point even when they were five wins apart in the regular season.
And the winner of the last match in this one-month tournament is forever remembered as the champions, while the winner of the six-month tournament proceeding is largely forgotten.
There has to be a better way.
And there is... the Rugby League Championship Belt.
