Dally M red carpet: All the fashion and gossip as NRL and NRLW WAGs shine
Designer gowns, diamonds and a new power couple make their debut. See the best of the Dally Ms glitz and glamour, and who the NRL stars are tipping to win the Grand Final.
Confidential
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The players will take centre stage in the grand final on Sunday, but it’s the partners of NRL and NRLW stars stealing the show — and the spotlight — as they glam up to walk the red carpet at the Dally M Awards.
Rugby league stars, coaches, and their partners dazzled the red carpet in Sydney on Wednesday night at Randwick Racecourse, showing out in designer gowns, blow-dried mullets, and diamonds.
While Nicho Hynes took home the Dally M Medal title for the men, NRLW winner Raecene McGregor wants to see her fellow sportswomen earn the same money and credibility as the blokes.
“It is such an awesome experience to get to win this award in front of my partner and my family and my teammates,” McGregor told The Daily Telegraph. “I’m here because of them. I’ve had such a good season because of the girls around me so I’m just really grateful.”
McGregor is a full time player but many women in the NRLW are not. She looks forward to a day when women are all able to work full time in the sport like their male counterparts.
“I am maybe one of the very few players able to work full time and I think it’s time for us to be at a level where we are full time,” she said.
“It is really hard to play a game at maybe 3pm on a Sunday and have to go to work in a day job on the Monday. It is tough. Hopefully in the next few years or whatever it may be possible to all be full time.”
McGregor’s partner, Jamie Bright, said she was “super proud” of the NRLW Dally M winner.
“I’m super proud and couldn’t be happier,” Bright said.
ROOSTER’S SPRINT INTO OLYMPIAN’S DMS PAYS OFF
For Roosters second rower Angus Crichton, persistence paid off in the love stakes- after “sliding” into Olympic sprinter Morgan Mitchell’s DMs on social media first in 2018, and again in 2020 and 2021, the pair have been dating since February this year.
Crichton and Mitchell kept their blossoming romance low key though and stepped out for the first time at an official event at the Dally M Awards at Royal Randwick racecourse.
“He had me rolling (in laughter),” Mitchell, who represented Australia at the Tokyo Olympics, told The Daily Telegraph.
“He is very relaxed, I am a Libra, and to be honest we are just happy to be in our own little bubble together. We are quite private ... we are chill.”
Mitchell wore a J’Aton gown while Crichton opted for an MJ Bale suit and Dior shirt and shoes.
“It is cool to see everyone getting dressed up and having a good time,” Crichton said. “I wouldn’t call myself a fashionista, I would say I’ve got some style.”
Crichton, 26, shrugged off suggestion the pair are Aussie sport’s new ‘golden couple’.
“We like to keep it pretty low key. She is gorgeous. We first started seeing each other in February last year and we’ve been kicking around for a while. We don’t want to give each other any labels.”
Mitchell was easily one of the best dressed on the carpet for the night that honours the best of the NRL and NRLW.
“I love glam, I love awards nights, it is just a time for everyone to celebrate the sport. I run obviously but I am more into fashion and music.”
Mitchell said Crichton had taught her the rules of the game since the pair began dating.
“Now that I have been in the scene with him and I’ve been watching him train, I think it is very admirable. It is a lot of hard work. The more games I went to, I picked it up.”
She added: “We get each other’s schedules, that is why we work so well. I am very understanding of what he has to do and I am understanding of what he has to do. And that is why we are still here.”
BOLD STATEMENT LOOKS AND BLACK TIE SUITS
James Tedesco, Cameron Munster, Nicho Hynes, Ryan Papenhuyzen, Dylan Brown and Payne Haas were among the big names to walk the carpet.
Like Mitchell, several leading ladies chose to compliment their partners’ dark suits with bright white gowns, including the partners of Broncos skipper Adam Reynolds, NRLW Dragons player and joint 2021 Dally M winner Emma Tonegato, Rabbitohs coach Jason Demetriou and former league star Jamie Soward.
Tonegato, a joint winner of the NRLW Dally M in 2021 alongside Millie Boyle, wore a floor-length wedding-dress style gown in off-white while Jesse Sergis opted for a revealing gold sparkling dress.
Mitchell Moses was a notable absentee, understandable given he and partner, Bri Gardoni, welcomed the arrival of daughter Aspyn earlier this week.
Jerome Luai was also missing given his partner, Bailey Paris Toleafoa, became parents for the third time, with the arrival of daughter, Halo.
Other popular colours for NRL stars’ significant others were fluoro pink, sported by the partners of Rabbitohs stars Damien Cook and Lachlan Ilias and The Raiders’ Joseph Tapine’s girlfriend; and soft greens, worn by a number of WAGs.
HYNES JUST HERE FOR A GOOD TIME
Nicho Hynes and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow took part in a welcome to country to kick off the official ceremony that was hosted by Yvonne Sampson.
“I am feeling sweet,” Hynes, of the Cronulla Sharks, told Confidential. “I am just here to have a good time and enjoy everyone’s company. I am here to have a good time with my team, to see some mates and take it all in really.”
Hynes tipped the Penrith Panthers to take home the NRL grand final this weekend.
“They are just too good a team at the moment,” he said.
Canberra Raiders forward Joseph Tapine is also tipping the Panthers.
“I reckon Penrith, they have been strong the last couple of years,” Tapine said of his grand final pick.
“In the hard times, the crunch times, they really come together.”
His wife Kirsten wore a bright fuchsia By Johnny dress and matching earrings from indigenous designer, Ngumpie Weaving.
Kirsten Tapine famously called out Raiders coach Ricky Stuart for benching her husband in 2021. At the time, she took to Instagram to question the decision, saying: “Your interchanges are killing us”.
Asked about the exchange, she said it was a show of support for her husband.
“That has always been me,” she said of sharing her opinions publicly. “I’m lucky to have a husband that supports me in everything I do so I am his biggest supporter.”
She added that there is a good relationship with the Raiders coach and his family.
“We are good mates,” she said. “We have a good relationship ... him (with Stuart) and his wife and family.”
Of being married to a professional footballer, she said: “It has its pros and cons but I love my husband so I will support him in whatever he decides to do and just go along with that ride.”
WHO’S TAKING HOME THE TROPHY? GRAND FINAL TIPS
NRL grand final players from the Penrith Panthers and Parramatta Eels were the names on everyone’s lips ahead of the season’s final clash this weekend.
Mullets were popular among the men in the hairstyle stakes.
“I did a bit of a blow-dry before to make it look good for you guys,” Gold Coast Titans player Tino Fa’asuamaleaui said. “The boys like their haircuts and the mullet adds style a little bit.”
Melbourne Storm’s Ryan Papenhuyzen also celebrated his long locks.
“I don’t see myself cutting it off some time soon,” he said. “It is me now so I can’t really get rid of it so down the track maybe.”
Also of the Storm, Cameron Munster said “it was a tough one” to pick the NRL grand final winner.
“I think (Nathan) Cleary’s going to kick the field goal,” he said. “It is going to be hard to cause an upset with the way Cleary has been playing. He is one of the best players in the competition.”
WHAT’S HOT AMONG THE WAGS
Stylist Livia Sharp dressed many of the players and their partners.
“I was really impressed with the level of glamour on the carpet,” she said. “Not just from the girls, who looked amazing, but from the boys as well. I saw velvet dinner jackets, colour and sharp suiting. There were great pops of colour on some of the dresses, which really stood out on the red carpet. Glamour galore.”
“It is nice to have the spotlight on me,” Mele Maea, partner of Parramatta Eels star Junior Paulo, told The Daily Telegraph ahead of attending her first ever Dally M Awards.
“All the focus is usually on the boys and the partners behind these boys are amazing so it is our time to shine, our little bit of spotlight before the big game.”
The event at Royal Randwick Racecourse is the physical Dally Ms night in nearly three years due to the pandemic.
Maea and Ashleigh Camenzuli, partner of Penrith Panthers star Isaah Yeo, will be fierce opposition on Sunday when Parramatta takes on Penrith in the NRL grand final.
But ahead of tonight’s red carpet, they were sisters in fashion as they got ready for the big event: although thoughts of Sunday were never far from their minds.
“This is our year surely, it is time to break records,” mother of three Maea said. “I am trying to keep cool but I am excited.”
Camenzuli worked in real estate before going on maternity leave with her 10-month-old baby.
“I just don’t breathe through the whole game,” Camenzuli said. “It is really exciting to go to the Dally Ms, to be a bit spoiled for a night.”
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