{"id":203051,"date":"2025-10-10T13:45:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T13:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/203051\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T13:45:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T13:45:20","slug":"may-and-togatuki-receive-major-honours-at-wests-tigers-2025-awards-gala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/203051\/","title":{"rendered":"May and Togatuki receive major honours at Wests Tigers 2025 Awards Gala"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Wests Tigers NRL and NRLW squads, and a 600-strong audience including Club staff, partners, Members and fans gathered at Doltone House, Sydney this evening for the Wests Tigers 2025 Awards Gala \u2013 a celebration of the season that was and recognising individual excellence across all programs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Terrell May and Sarah Togatuki were the major winners, receiving the Kelly-Barnes Medal and the Wests Tigers NRLW Player of the Year Award respectively, among a raft of winners from throughout the Club.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Further emphasising his exceptional season, May was also named NRL Players\u2019 Player of the Year.<\/p>\n

Having joined the club last November, May excelled in his first season in orange, white and black \u2013 playing all 24 games for the Wests Tigers in 2025. May averaged 166 running metres per game and led the league in offloads with 66, while also recording 69 tackle breaks over the course of the campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Samoan international posted 1,023 tackles at a 97.7% efficiency rate, while averaging 73 minutes per game \u2013 illustrating both his durability and impact in the middle of the field.<\/p>\n


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Togatuki creates more Club history with her third consecutive NRLW Player of the Year Award. The latest honour for the damaging middle forward means she has taken out the top prize in all three of the Wests Tigers seasons in the elite women\u2019s competition.<\/p>\n

The NSW Origin and Jillaroos star now joins Gareth Ellis (2009-2011) as the only players to win three successive Wests Tigers Player of the Year awards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Togatuki played every match for Wests Tigers in the 2025 season, averaging 142 metres, making 28 tackle breaks and clocking up 599 post-contact metres in 11 games.\u00a0<\/p>\n


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The Club\u2019s rising stars were also acknowledged for their contribution across the NRL and NRLW campaigns for 2025, with Tony Sukkar and Caitlin Turnbull named Rookies of the Year respectively.<\/p>\n

Such was Turbull\u2019s debut season as a professional, she also took home the NRLW Players\u2019 Player Award.<\/p>\n

It was a breakout year for Turnbull, who joined the Wests Tigers from the Wentworthville Magpies ahead of the 2025 season. The 24-year-old has taken the NRLW by storm, scoring eight tries in 10 games, having played both wing and fullback.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Turnbull\u2019s performances off the ball were just as significant following her shift to fullback, making some critical plays as the Tigers last line of defence.<\/p>\n

Sukkar \u2013 a Balmain junior \u2013 played 15 games in his first full season in the NRL, impressing with his high work-rate and reliability in defence. The hard-working second rower provided impact off the bench for Benji Marshall and at just 21-years-old, will only benefit from more time in a professional environment.<\/p>\n

Jahream Bula was awarded the Wayne Pearce Community Award, in recognition of his ongoing work as a mentor at Redfern Youth Connect, a not-for-profit helping provide support, skills and activities for vulnerable Aboriginal youth.<\/p>\n


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Wests Tigers CEO, Shane Richardson congratulated all the 2025 Award winners.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Gala is a fantastic opportunity for us to come together as a Club and recognise some fantastic individual performances from across the season,\u201d Richardson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got some very worthy award winners, and I\u2019d like to congratulate them on what they\u2019ve achieved in 2025. We’ve seen each of these players continue to raise the bar with their own performances and make a strong impact on their teammates and the wider Club.<\/p>\n


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\u201cAs a Club we\u2019ve come a long way in the last 18-months but we still have plenty more to achieve. Reflecting on that and acknowledging those who have contributed this season is important before our focus quickly shifts to taking more strides forward in 2026,\u201d Richardson concluded.<\/p>\n

2025 Wests Tigers Awards Gala winners:\u00a0
Kelly-Barnes Medal \u2014 Terrell May\u00a0
NRLW Player of the Year \u2014 Sarah Togatuki\u00a0
NRL Players\u2019 Player \u2014 Terrell May\u00a0
NRLW Players\u2019 Player \u2014 Caitlin Turnbull\u00a0
NRL Rookie of the Year \u2014 Tony Sukkar\u00a0\u00a0
NRLW Rookie of the Year \u2014 Caitlin Turnbull\u00a0\u00a0
NSW Cup Player of the Year \u2014 Izaac Tu’itupou\u00a0
NSW Cup Players\u2019 Player \u2014 Izaac Tu’itupou\u00a0
NSW Women\u2019s Premiership Player of the Year \u2014 Taylor Mapusua\u00a0
NSW Women\u2019s Premiership Players\u2019 Player \u2014 Katalina Vave\u00a0
Jersey Flegg Player of the Year \u2014 Josese Lanyon\u00a0
Jersey Flegg Players\u2019 Player \u2014 Solomone Saukuru\u00a0
Wayne Pearce Community Award \u2014 Jahream Bula\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Wests Tigers NRL and NRLW squads, and a 600-strong audience including Club staff, partners, Members and fans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-203051","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\/203051","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=203051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}