Kiwis playmaker Dylan Brown, Toa Samoa prop Payne Haas and Kangaroos pair Cameron Munster and Reece Walsh are among the leading contenders to win the 2025 IRL Golden Boot.<\/p>\n
Brown, who will join Newcastle next season on a 10-year contract, has been a standout for New Zealand in their turn-around of fortunes to reach Sunday\u2019s Pacific Cup final against Samoa after being in a promotion-relegation play-off with Papua New Guinea 12 months ago.<\/p>\n
Haas, the Brisbane Broncos premiership winning prop, has made a huge impact for Samoa since switching his international allegiances to the Pacific nation and will be an influential figure in the sold-out final at CommBank Stadium.<\/p>\n
Walsh and Munster have played starring roles in Australia\u2019s domination of the Ashes series against England.<\/p>\n
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Not a bad debut for Reece Walsh…<\/p>\n
Broncos fullback Walsh made a stunning Test debut at Wembley in the series opener, won 26-6 by the Kangaroos, while Storm five-eighth Munster led Australia to a 14-4 victory at Everton last weekend.<\/p>\n
Kumuls hooker Edwin Ipape also features on the 2025 Golden Boot long list of candidates after his performance and leadership as a youthful PNG side retained the Pacific Bowl for a third consecutive season against Fiji and Cook Islands.<\/p>\n
New Zealand are the most heavily represented team, with Canberra Raiders forward Joseph Tapine another strong contender. Penrith Panthers forwards Isaiah Papali\u2019i and Moses Leota also feature, along with outside backs Matt Timoko (Raiders) and Casey McLean (Panthers).<\/p>\n
There are five Australian players on the long list \u2013 Munster, Walsh, Storm hooker Harry Grant, Sydney Roosters second-rower Angus Crichton and Cowboys forward Reuben Cotter, who had a huge impact off the bench in last weekend\u2019s 14-4 victory in the second Test.<\/p>\n
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Payne Haas Try<\/p>\n
Samoa co-captains Junior Paulo and Jarome Luai join Haas and injured second-rower Jeremiah Nanai are nominations from the 2022 World Cup finalists, who are chasing the nation\u2019s first silverware in the Pacific Cup final.<\/p>\n
Fiji fullback Jahream Bula, from Wests Tigers, has also been nominated after his sensational form for the Bati in the Pacific Bowl.<\/p>\n
Golden Cap recipients\u00a0Darren Lockyer\u00a0(Australia),\u00a0Cameron Smith (Australia), Ruben Wiki (New Zealand), James Graham\u00a0(England) and\u00a0Petero Civoniceva (Australia\/Fiji), who are among just nine players to have played 50 or more internationals, will choose the 2025 IRL Golden Boot winner.<\/p>\n
Darren Lockyer played a record 59 Tests for Australia, captaining the Kangaroos on 38 occasions, and is a two-time winner of the Golden Boot in 2003 and 2006.<\/p>\n
Cameron Smith captained Australia in 33 of his 56 Test appearances and led the Kangaroos to World Cup success in 2013 and 2017. He won the Golden Boot in 2007 and 2017.<\/p>\n
Ruben Wiki, who has Maori and Samoan heritage, played a record 55 Tests for New Zealand and captained the Kiwis on 18 occasions, including their historic 2005 Tri-Nations triumph.<\/p>\n
James Graham made a record 44 international appearances for England, including eight as captain, and played a further nine matches for Great Britain.<\/p>\n
Petero Civoniceva played for Australia in 45 internationals before representing his Fijian heritage at the 2013 World Cup and again in 2014, making six appearances for the Bati.<\/p>\n
The 2024 IRL Golden Boot winners were Kangaroos captain Isaah Yeo, Jillaroos playmaker Taryn Aiken and England Wheelchair star\u00a0Rob Hawkins.<\/p>\n
Short lists for the 2025 IRL Golden Boot awards will be announced after the Pacific Cup final in Sydney on Sunday, November 9, with the possibility of other players being included.<\/p>\n
2025 IRL GOLDEN BOOT LONG LIST (men)<\/p>\n
Dylan Brown (New Zealand)
\nJahream Bula (Fiji)
\nReuben Cotter (Australia)
\nAngus Crichton (Australia)
\nHarry Grant (Australia)
\nPayne Haas (Samoa)
\nEdwin Ipape (Papua New Guinea)
\nLachlan Lam (Papua New Guinea)
\nMoses Leota (New Zealand)
\nJarome Luai (Samoa)
\nCasey McLean (New Zealand)
\nCameron Munster (Australia)
\nIsaiah Papali\u2019i (New Zealand)
\nJunior Paulo (Samoa)
\nJeremiah Nanai (Samoa)
\nJoseph Tapine (New Zealand)
\nMatthew Timoko (New Zealand)
\nReece Walsh (Australia)<\/p>\n
Previous IRL Golden Boot Winners<\/p>\n
Men<\/p>\n
1984 Wally Lewis (Australia)
\n1985 Brett Kenny (Australia)
\n1986 Garry Jack (Australia)
\n1987 Hugh McGahan (New Zealand) and Peter Sterling (Australia)
\n1988 Ellery Hanley (England)
\n1989 Mal Meninga (Australia)
\n1990 Garry Schofield (England)
\n1992 Garry Schofield (England)
\n1991-98 No award given
\n1999 Andrew Johns (Australia)
\n2000 Brad Fittler (Australia)
\n2001 Andrew Johns (Australia)
\n2002 Stacey Jones (New Zealand)
\n2003 Darren Lockyer (Australia)
\n2004 Andrew Farrell (England)
\n2005 Anthony Minichiello (Australia)
\n2006 Darren Lockyer (Australia)
\n2007 Cameron Smith (Australia)
\n2008 Billy Slater (Australia)
\n2009 Greg Inglis (Australia)
\n2010 Benji Marshall (New Zealand)
\n2011 Johnathan Thurston (Australia)
\n2012 Kevin Sinfield (England)
\n2013 Johnathan Thurston (Australia)
\n2014 Shaun Johnson (New Zealand)
\n2015 Johnathan Thurston (Australia)
\n2016 Cooper Cronk (Australia)
\n2017 Cameron Smith (Australia)
\n2018 Tommy Makinson (England)
\n2019 Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (New Zealand)
\n2020 No award given
\n2021 No award given
\n2022 Joey Manu (New Zealand)
\n2023 James Fisher-Harris (New Zealand)
\n2024 Isaah Yeo (Australia)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kiwis playmaker Dylan Brown, Toa Samoa prop Payne Haas and Kangaroos pair Cameron Munster and Reece Walsh are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-266801","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\/266801","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=266801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}