North Queensland Cowboys fullback Scott Drinkwater has used a perfect game to surge into the top five of Zero Tackle’s NRL MVP at the end of Round 25.

The star was one of six players to claim a perfect 20 votes during Round 25, and while it strengthens his position, it doesn’t do anything to change the fact James Tedesco is the likely winner.

He didn’t register a vote in Round 25, but the only other player who could knock him out of top spot Terrell May didn’t either, meaning the 25-vote gap between the pair remains.

With just two games to play, Tedesco only needs to register 16 more votes in total to ensure he will take out our MVP for the second year in a row.

Despite being injured, Herbie Farnworth remains in third spot, while Drinkwater is joined by Payne Haas (who scored 16 votes) in moving into the top five.

Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Joseph Tapine are the other players who have moved into the top 10, with the Warriors’ star winger managing 100 votes over his last seven games.

Tuivasa-Sheck and Drinkwater were joined by Jye Gray, Ethan Strange, Tom Trbojevic and Reece Walsh as the perfect 20-vote getters during Round 25, while the other two games saw Viliame Kikau and Cameron Munster split votes as Melbourne beat the Bulldogs. Josh Addo-Carr and Mark Nawaqanitawase were named to the top spot as the Eels upset the Roosters.

During every round of the 2025 NRL season, four judges from Zero Tackle’s team (founder Matt Clements, writers Ethan Lee Chalk and Dan Nichols, and myself as editor) will assign votes on a 5-4-3-2-1 basis for every game during the season, with results to be published each week here on Zero Tackle.

Without any further ado, here are the votes from Round 25.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top Ten

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