{"id":915993,"date":"2026-10-04T16:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T16:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/915993\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T16:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T16:28:12","slug":"nrl-grand-final-2026-who-won-the-clive-churchill-medal-for-man-of-the-match-james-tedesco-emotional-interview-what-did-he-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/915993\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL Grand Final 2026: Who won the Clive Churchill Medal for man of the match? James Tedesco, emotional interview, what did he say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roosters fullback James Tedesco won the 2026 Clive Churchill Medal after leading his side to a thrilling 19-18 win over the Knights.<\/a><\/p>\n

The evergreen Tedesco was everywhere for the Chooks, running for 305 metres and recording nine tackle busts.<\/p>\n

Watch Australia\u2019s Tour of South Africa Live & Exclusive on Fox Cricket, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

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The fullback was extremely emotional when speaking to Channel 9 soon after the final buzzer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think I\u2019d be so emotional. I\u2019m so proud of this team. What a game. I\u2019m speechless. Speechless,\u201d Tedesco said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I felt like we had them on the ropes, but they just kept coming back. There were so many great attacking players and all that game, it could have went either way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just so proud of them. I\u2019m so happy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means a lot (playing in front of family). I can\u2019t wait to give him a big hug now.<\/p>\n

Their support just means everything to me. They\u2019re the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson on GF win: “There’s pure joy!” | 14:14<\/p>\n

Tedesco also praised Roosters playmaker Daly Cherry-Evans, who ended his decorated NRL career on the highest note possible.<\/p>\n

Cherry-Evans joined the Roosters in the off-season on a one-year deal in a highly publicised switch from Manly and will now head to Hull FC to finish his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the best,\u201d Tedesco said. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe has helped me so much on and off the field. That\u2019s why we got him, to ice into those big moments and he did that tonight. I\u2019m so, so happy we could have a fairytale ending for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Roosters\u2019 No. 1 joined the club and coach Trent Robinson in 2018 and the pair have combined for three premierships, but this is Tedesco\u2019s first win with the \u2018C\u2019 next to his name.<\/p>\n

Holbrook: ‘Fight to get back here!’ | 11:57<\/p>\n

Robinson paid immense credit to his skipper post-game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith about 20 minutes to go and I think we\u2019d just kicked the penalty goal and he was getting back onside and he was in the red, but he just kept going and going and going,\u201d Robinson said. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe had to clean up loose balls. He had to take kick returns and then he had to take the last tackle as well. He just never gave up. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was it was such a big one for Ted tonight to captain a premiership. He\u2019s played in two, but to captain one was was really special for him. So yeah, we\u2019re pretty blessed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roosters fullback James Tedesco won the 2026 Clive Churchill Medal after leading his side to a thrilling 19-18…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":915994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,85,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-915993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915993","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=915993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/915994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}