Three Penrith Panthers players have cracked the top five of Zero Tackle’s NRL MVP at the end of Round 4, but it’s still New Zealand Warriors halfback Tanah Boyd who holds the overall lead.
Boyd, who piloted the Warriors to three straight wins in the opening weeks of the year, was joined by a returning Luke Metcalf in the halves for the Auckland-based side during Round 4, but they lost their first game of the year to the Wests Tigers.
Boyd, unsurprisingly, did not poll.
The Penrith Panthers meanwhile, clattered the Parramatta Eels in the west of Sydney, and combined with their excellent start to the year, Dylan Edwards, Thomas Jenkins, and Nathan Cleary, who earned a perfect 20 votes, are now all within eight votes of the lead.
Dominic Young, who was also voted as the unanimous best on ground, sits in fifth spot, while there have been other changes in the top ten, with Scott Drinkwater and Braydon Trindall both playing good games.
Cleary and Young were joined by Adam Doueihi, Kotoni Staggs and Arama Hau as the players voted best on ground by all four judges, while in the other games, Robert Toia, Naufahu Whyte, Scott Drinkwater, Jake Clifford, William Kennedy and Braydon Trindall 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 the Round 4 votes.
Top ten