North Queensland Cowboys star Scott Drinkwater continues to control Zero Tackle’s NRL MVP at the end of Round 9, with most of his gap maintained to Jackson Ford, Latrell Mitchell and Nathan Cleary.
Drinkwater wasn’t the man of the match for any of our judges on Friday evening against the Canterbury Bulldogs, but did claim 16 votes.
Jackson Ford closed in by a single vote, while Latrell Mitchell is sitting equal third alongside Nathan Cleary who was one of five players to claim a perfect 20 during Round 9.
Cleary was joined in the perfect 20 stakes by Jason Taumalolo, Kulikefu Finefeuiaki, Kalyn Ponga and KL Iro, while the other three games saw a mix of Matthew Timoko, Kaeo Weekes, Erin Clark, Jackson Ford, James Tedesco and Naufahu Whyte votes as player of the match by at least one judge.
Of the perfect 20s, only Cleary features in the top ten, with Finefeuiaki the closest on the outsider, holding 13th spot, however, most of the top ten scored points, with James Tedesco and Dylan Edwards holding spots in the top six from last week, while Haumole Olakau’atu, Tolutau Koula and Tanah Boyd have all advanced their causes with decent point totals.
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 9 votes.
Top ten
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