Penrith Panthers fullback Dylan Edwards has used his demotion as NSW fullback in the State of Origin series to continue putting in strong performances for the Penrith Panthers, taking back control of Zero Tackle’s NRL MVP after Round 16.
The Penrith star landed 12 votes in their loss to the Gold Coast Titans on the weekend, jumping a vote clear of teammate Nathan Cleary, while Scott Drinkwater, who polled three votes, sits in third spot.
Both Haumole Olakau’atu and James Tedesco scored strongly to move into fourth and fifth, while Tolutau Koula, Herbie Farnworth and Sua Fa’alogo also scored in the top ten.
Outside of the top ten, Naufahu Whyte, Keano Kini, Cameron Munster and Mark Nawaqanitawase were the biggest movers.
It was a round where agreement between our judging panel wasn’t overly forthcoming, with only Zane Harrison, who kicked a winning golden-point field goal for the Titans, and Connor Tracey earning a perfect 20.
In the other five games, Dylan Brown, Fletcher Sharpe, Brad Schneider, Kodi Nikorima, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Wayde Egan, Te Maire Martin, Will Warbrick, Sua Fa’alogo, Mark Nawaqanitawase and Naufahu Whyte were all awarded five votes by at least one judge.
As a reminder of how this works, our panel, comprising Zero Tackle founder Matt Clements, journalist Leo Twemlow, and writer Dan Nichols, alongside myself as editor, will cast votes on a 5-4-3-2-1 basis from each game of the premiership season.
Here are all the Round 16 votes across the 7 games played.
Top Ten
Click here to view the full leaderboard.