{"id":885186,"date":"2026-09-09T03:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T03:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/885186\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T03:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T03:14:12","slug":"zero-tackles-nrl-mvp-team-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/885186\/","title":{"rendered":"Zero Tackle’s NRL MVP team of the year"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 NRL<\/a> regular season is over, with the finals to begin, and nine teams left planning for 2027.<\/p>\n

The final round of votes in Zero Tackle’s NRL<\/a> MVP race saw Dylan Edwards<\/a> claim a narrow victory, with just five votes separating the top three in the closest race we have ever won.<\/p>\n

It’s now time to name our MVP team of the year, with many of the likely suspects included across the best four teams of 2026.<\/p>\n

Minor premiers the Panthers have dominated with four selections to the top team, while it’s the Rabbitohs who are the bridesmaids, with five selections to the B team.<\/p>\n

Every team in the competition is represented somewhere across the four teams, with vote tallies varying wildly. James Tedesco<\/a> is the highest vote getter in the fourth team with 162, which is higher than many positions in the first team.<\/p>\n

In designing these teams, players were only considered in the position they played in most throughout 2026.<\/p>\n

Here are the top four teams of the year.<\/p>\n

NRL MVP team of the year<\/p>\n

1. Dylan Edwards<\/a> (Penrith Panthers<\/a>) – 215 votes
2. Thomas Jenkins<\/a> (Penrith Panthers<\/a>) – 133 votes
3. Herbie Farnworth<\/a> (The Dolphins<\/a>) – 176 votes
4. Simi Sasagi<\/a> (Canberra Raiders<\/a>) – 142 votes
5. Brian To’o<\/a> (Penrith Panthers<\/a>) – 127 votes
6. Braydon Trindall<\/a> (Cronulla Sharks<\/a>) – 175 votes
7. Nathan Cleary<\/a> (Penrith Panthers<\/a>) – 212 votes
8. Naufahu Whyte<\/a> (Sydney Roosters<\/a>) – 202 votes
9. Harry Grant<\/a> (Melbourne Storm<\/a>) – 127 votes
10. Keaon Koloamatangi<\/a> (South Sydney Rabbitohs<\/a>) – 128 votes
11. Haumole Olakau’atu<\/a> (Manly Sea Eagles<\/a>) – 210 votes
12. Kulikefu Finefeuiaki<\/a> (The Dolphins<\/a>) – 97 votes
13. Erin Clark<\/a> (New Zealand Warriors<\/a>) – 100 votes<\/p>\n

NRL MVP second team of the year<\/p>\n

1. Scott Drinkwater<\/a> (North Queensland Cowboys<\/a>) – 199 votes
2. Dominic Young<\/a> (Newcastle Knights<\/a>) – 101 votes
3. Tolutau Koula<\/a> (Manly Sea Eagles<\/a>) – 112 votes
4. Latrell Mitchell<\/a> (South Sydney Rabbitohs<\/a>) – 109 votes
5. Mark Nawaqanitawase<\/a> (Sydney Roosters<\/a>) – 98 votes
6. Cody Walker<\/a> (South Sydney Rabbitohs<\/a>) – 91 votes
7. Nicho Hynes<\/a> (Cronulla Sharks<\/a>) – 147 votes
8. Jackson Ford<\/a> (New Zealand Warriors<\/a>) – 121 votes
9. Wayde Egan<\/a> (New Zealand Warriors<\/a>) – 56 votes
10. Jason Taumalolo<\/a> (North Queensland Cowboys<\/a>) – 104 votes
11. Tallis Duncan<\/a> (South Sydney Rabbitohs<\/a>) – 91 votes
12. David Fifita<\/a> (South Sydney Rabbitohs<\/a>) – 78 votes
13. Cameron Murray<\/a> (South Sydney Rabbitohs<\/a>) – 81 votes<\/p>\n

Loading matchup\u2026<\/p>\n

NRL MVP third team of the year<\/p>\n

1. Sua Fa’alogo<\/a> (Melbourne Storm<\/a>) – 165 votes
2. Selwyn Cobbo<\/a> (The Dolphins<\/a>) – 82 votes
3. Jack Bostock<\/a> (The Dolphins<\/a>) – 72 votes
4. Stephen Crichton<\/a> (Canterbury Bulldogs<\/a>) – 72 votes
5. Greg Marzhew<\/a> (Newcastle Knights<\/a>) – 79 votes
6. Kodi Nikorima<\/a> (The Dolphins<\/a>) – 84 votes
7. Adam Doueihi<\/a> (Wests Tigers<\/a>) – 96 votes
8. Stefano Utoikamanu<\/a> (Melbourne Storm<\/a>) – 97 votes
9. Blayke Brailey<\/a> (Cronulla Sharks<\/a>) – 55 votes
10. Toby Couchman<\/a> (St George Illawarra Dragons<\/a>) – 96 votes
11. Jacob Preston<\/a> (Canterbury Bulldogs<\/a>) – 78 votes
12. Leka Halasima<\/a> (New Zealand Warriors<\/a>) – 58 votes
13. Isaah Yeo<\/a> (Penrith Panthers<\/a>) – 48 votes<\/p>\n

David Fifita won a tie-breaker between the second and third team with Jacob Preston by having one perfect game to Preston’s zero.<\/p>\n

NRL MVP fourth team of the year<\/p>\n

1. James Tedesco<\/a> (Sydney Roosters<\/a>) – 162 votes
2. Braidon Burns<\/a> (North Queensland Cowboys<\/a>) – 76 votes
3. Casey McLean<\/a> (Penrith Panthers<\/a>) – 71 votes
4. KL Iro<\/a> (Cronulla Sharks<\/a>) – 70 votes
5. Phillip Sami<\/a> (Gold Coast Titans<\/a>) – 74 votes
6. Cameron Munster<\/a> (Melbourne Storm<\/a>) – 83 votes
7. Te Maire Martin<\/a> (New Zealand Warriors<\/a>) – 93 votes
8. Terrell May<\/a> (Wests Tigers<\/a>) – 83 votes
9. Tallyn Da Silva<\/a> (Parramatta Eels<\/a>) – 44 votes
10. Tino Fa’asuamaleaui<\/a> (Gold Coast Titans<\/a>) – 77 votes
11. Dylan Lucas<\/a> (Newcastle Knights<\/a>) – 55 votes
12. Hamish Stewart<\/a> (St George Illawarra Dragons<\/a>) – 49 votes
13. Alex Twal<\/a> (Wests Tigers<\/a>) – 47 votes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 NRL regular season is over, with the finals to begin, and nine teams left planning for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":885187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-885186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885186","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=885186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/885187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=885186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=885186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=885186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}