{"id":128014,"date":"2025-09-08T15:09:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T15:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/128014\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T15:09:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T15:09:09","slug":"ronaldo-mulitalo-reaction-after-rlpa-players-champion-nomination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/128014\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronaldo Mulitalo reaction after RLPA Players’ Champion nomination"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cronulla<\/a> winger Ronaldo Mulitalo<\/a> has delivered a hilarious response to being nominated as a contender for the RLPA Players’ Champion award, referring to himself as the “derrick of the year” for his polarising exploits on the field.<\/p>\n

The shortlist for the major awards was revealed on Monday night during Nine’s 100% Footy, with four players from each NRL and NRLW club in the running to take it out.<\/p>\n

The awards, which are handed out to the best player as voted by their peers, will be announced in the lead-up to the NRL grand final.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Bulldogs pull off incredible coup on eve of NRL finals<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: McGuire rips ‘rubbish’ claims of soured friendship<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Wait and see’: Titans coach coy on Fifita’s future<\/a><\/p>\n

The nomination for the Sharks star took him by surprise, given the fact he spends a lot of his time on the field riling up opposition players.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ronaldo Mulitalo\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

“That would be nice – I’m surprised they even called me up,” Mulitalo said.<\/p>\n

“Derrick of the year award, being an idiot on the field, I’ll take it.”<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old was then asked by former teammate and Cronulla legend Paul Gallen what it is about lighting the fuse with rival players that entices him.<\/p>\n

“I do get carried away with it sometimes,” Mulitalo said.<\/p>\n

“Obviously I’m a bit of a derrick when it comes to that stuff, but that’s footy. I like to make it interesting for the fans and everyone watching and that’s what it’s about.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2025 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and 9Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Obviously that Storm game, I was getting into them when they were at our home, so as soon as I got into Melbourne I knew what was coming.<\/p>\n

“I love when they’re getting in my face and making sure that I’m providing energy for my teammates and not giving it to them and letting it take away from my game.”<\/p>\n

One player who made the list from the women’s game was Parramatta Eels star Rueben Cherrington, leaving her older sister Kennedy beaming with pride.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rueben Cherrington\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“Big rap to my little sis – ruled out after a nasty tackle last year and missed out on the whole season, so it’s always good to see players come back from injury,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Players’ Champion, if you’re not familiar, is one of the most respected awards in the NRL and NRLW – I think it’s got more pull than the Dally M.<\/p>\n

“It’s from your own \u2026 there’s just a different feel about it.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wide World Of Sports will have a full list of contenders for the awards soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cronulla winger Ronaldo Mulitalo has delivered a hilarious response to being nominated as a contender for the RLPA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-128014","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}