NRL Dally M: Origin snub could secure individual honours for James Tedesco
The Origin snub which might secure the Dally M, the rookies racking up the points and ageing star on the decline. All that plus a club-by-club votes guide in our Dally M deep dive.
He lost the battle for his coveted NSW fullback jersey but James Tedesco is well and truly in the frame to win his second Dally M Medal as the voting goes behind closed doors.
Tedesco’s Origin snub provides an opportunity for him to go on a Dally M run while his fellow contenders, including the man who took his Blues jersey, Dylan Edwards, are consumed with state duties.
Edwards, on 31 points, is the leading Dally M vote getter after 12 rounds, ahead of 2022 winner Nicho Hynes (30), Maroons captain Daly Cherry-Evans (27) and Penrith co-captain Isaah Yeo (24).
Tedesco sits equal fifth, alongside injured Bulldog Viliame Kikau, on 23 points, with a golden opportunity to make a run for the award he won in 2019.
Tedesco and the Dolphins’ Isaiya Katoa (21 points) are the only two players in the top 10 not in Origin teams or currently injured.
It all starts for Tedesco on Sunday when his Roosters host North Queensland at Allianz Stadium as he looks to continue a recent stranglehold fullbacks have on the Dally M Medal.
Fullbacks have dominated the Dally M Medal winners list since 2018, with four of the past six medallists being custodians including the reigning champion Kalyn Ponga while Tedesco won it in 2019.
As revealed by this masthead after obtaining the NRL confidential benchmarking document, which outlines the average wage for each position and how much the top earners in each spot is making, fullbacks have usurped halfbacks as the big earners in NRL squads, with the average wage of the top five No.1s at $1.24 million.
SURPRISE PACKETS
Isaiya Katoa (21 points): In just his second NRL season, Isaiya Katoa is turning heads. He is equal seventh in Dally M voting as it heads behind closed doors, just nine points behind Edwards.
The 20-year-old’s name was mentioned in NSW Origin discussions, while the Dolphins rate him so highly they handed him a three-year extension in April that keeps him at the club until the end of 2028.
Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga says the young halfback has a “footy IQ” beyond his years, while Cooper Cronk declared “If he stays on this trajectory, he may just be the reason why the Dolphins win their first premiership at some stage”.
David Armstrong (16 points): When reigning Dally M medallist Kalyn Ponga went down with a Lisfranc injury in Round 7, Newcastle fans could have been excused for thinking the Knights were in a world of trouble. Then his fullback replacement, David Armstrong, comes along and knocks it out of the park and helps the Knights to four straight wins.
With five tries in his four games, the NRL rookie already has 16 Dally M points and has rocketed up the leaderboard to be just a point behind reigning Ponga.
And with just one bye during the Origin period, Armstrong could climb even higher in the standings before Ponga’s expected return after their Round 21 bye.
Ethan Strange (11 points): Still only 19, the Raiders rookie five-eighth has played every minute of the season so far. He’s the poster boy of coach Ricky Stuart’s investment in youth, having held off new recruit Kaeo Weekes to own the No.6 jersey.
He can break the line, put on a try and has a cool demeanour to run a football team.
THE MIRACLE RUN
When voting went behind closed doors last year, Payne Haas was the runaway favourite on 30 points, with Nathan Cleary on 27 and Hynes and Harry Grant on 25.
Ponga wasn’t even on the radar, a whopping 24 points behind on six.
The Newcastle star, who made himself unavailable for the entire Origin series, stunned the league and claimed the medal after leading the Knights into the finals with a 9-game winning streak.
“I wasn’t going to go, to be honest,” Ponga said after his shock win last year.
“When I woke up in the morning I actually sent the NRL an email saying I didn’t want to go. I just wanted to sit at home and watch it on the couch.”
Can history repeat itself?
Ironically, Haas is now the big name on six points, as is Nathan Cleary, who is out until Rd 19, Mitchell Moses, who returns this week, and Maroons discard David Fifita.
Sam Walker is on seven, while Jarome Luai and Cameron Munster are on eight.
CLEARY CURSE
Arguably the best in the game for the past five years, but Cleary is yet to win the award, and his troublesome hamstring injury means it will be extremely unlikely that the Penrith co-captain will break his Dally M Medal duck in 2024.
Cleary has endured a frustrating run at the NRL’s highest individual honour. He was third, two points behind Jack Wighton, in 2020, and finished second a year later, five points adrift of runaway winner Tom Trbojevic.
Injuries are now set to cost him for the third straight season.
While Cleary’s legacy isn’t in doubt as a key cog in Penrith’s premiership dominance, for a man who has achieved it all at the age of 26, it wouldn’t feel right if he didn’t add a Dally M Medal to his list of honours before he retires.
HOW THE MIGHTY HAVE FALLEN
Jason Taumalolo, the 2016 Dally M medallist, hasn’t been awarded a single point in this season’s voting.
The North Queensland forward, who turns 31 on Friday, has been averaging just 37 minutes per game in 2024, down from 48 last year and the 60-plus minutes he was punching out in 2020.
He has come off the bench in the Cowboys’ past five games and not even Origin call-ups for teammates Jeremiah Nanai and Reuben Cotter, or long-term injuries to Coen Hess and Jamayne Taunoa-Brown, could catapult him back into the starting line-up.
Instead, coach Todd Payten has named Thomas Mikaele as starting lock for Sunday’s clash with the Sydney Roosters at Allianz Stadium.
It’s been a sharp decline for the Tongan wrecking ball, who still has three-and-a-half seasons remaining on his historic 10-year deal.
2024 DALLY M LEADERBOARD
31 points: Dylan Edwards
30: Nicho Hynes
27: Daly Cherry-Evans
24: Isaah Yeo
23: James Tedesco, Viliame Kikau
21: Isaiya Katoa, Pat Carrigan, Tom Trbojevic, Zac Lomax
18: Scott Drinkwater
ORIGIN BYE SCHEDULE
Broncos: 2 (R13, R16)
Bulldogs: 2 (R15, R19)
Cowboys: 2 (R16, R19)
Dolphins 2 (R14, R18)
Dragons: 2 (R16, R20)
Eels: 2 (R16, R20)
Knights: 1 (R16)
Panthers: 2 (R16, R19)
Rabbitohs: 2 (R13, R17)
Raiders: 2 (R14, R19)
Roosters: 2 (R14, R19)
Sea Eagles: 2 (R13, R17)
Sharks: 2 (R16, R20)
Storm: 2 (R13, R19)
Tigers: 1 (R13)
Titans: 2 (R13, R17)
Warriors: 2 (R13, R19)
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