Dally M Medal

Dally M Medal
Current: 2024 Dally M Awards
Awarded for	The Player of the year in the National Rugby League
Country	Australia
First awarded	1979
Currently held by	Jahrome Hughes (2024)
Most awards	Johnathan Thurston (2005, 2007, 2014, 2015)
Television/radio coverage
Network	Fox Sports

The Dally M Medal is awarded each year (annually) to the player voted for as the 'Player of the year' over the National Rugby League (NRL) regular season. The awards are named in honour of Australian former rugby league great Herbert Henry "Dally" Messenger. The award has existed since 1979, but has only been adopted as the official award for the Player of the Year in the NRL since 1998. Prior to that the official Player of the Year, in both the New South Wales and the Brisbane Rugby Leagues, received the Rothmans Medal whilst the Dally M Medal was awarded by the Daily Mirror newspaper.

After each game, rugby league sports commentators vote to award three votes to the best player, two votes to the second-best player, and one vote to the third-best player. Additionally, a player will lose three votes for each week of suspension that he incurs during the season. The votes for each round are made public up to Round 12 (26-round season), then are kept secret; this allows the final winner to be kept secret until the Dally M Awards ceremony.

The Rothmans Medal was the first official player-of-the-year award to be established in rugby league in Australia. The medal was sponsored by Rothmans, Benson & Hedges Inc., a tobacco production company. There were two Rothmans Medals awarded each year: one for the best player in the New South Wales Rugby League, and one for the best player in the Brisbane Rugby League. The voting for the Rothmans Medal was the same basic format as the modern day Dally M, except that the votes were determined by the referees, rather than the media.

The two Rothmans Medals were first awarded in 1968, and were awarded each year until 1996. In 1997, the Rothmans Medal in New South Wales became known as the Provan-Summons medal, because all tobacco advertising and sponsorship was prohibited in Australia in 1992, under the Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Act 1992; the medal then disappeared altogether in 1998 with the merger of the Australian Rugby League and the Australian Super League. The Queensland Rothmans Medal was also last awarded in 1996, as the Queensland Cup superseded the Brisbane Rugby League as Queensland's premier rugby league competition in 1997.

The Dally M Medal was named after Henry Herbert 'Dally' Messenger, who was instrumental in the establishment of rugby league football in Australia. The award was originally established by The Daily Mirror newspaper in 1979. For many years, it was the second major individual award in the New South Wales Rugby League behind the Rothmans Medal. It was awarded each year between 1979 and 1996. With the Super League schism in 1997, the medal was not awarded.

Since the National Rugby League (NRL) was formed from the merger of the Australian Rugby League and the Australian Super League in 1998, the Dally M Medal has been the single official player-of-the-year award for that league, and the highest individual honour in Australian rugby league. The medal is awarded, usually by the Australian Prime Minister, at the annual Dally M Awards night where as well as honouring the player of the year, the NRL recognises the premier player in each position, the best coach and the most outstanding rookie of the season.

The medal was notably not awarded in 2003, with the players association threatening to boycott the event during a pay dispute with the league. This backfired badly on the players, with the league responding by swiftly cancelling the event.^[1] Penrith's Craig Gower, who led by one vote entering the final round and was unofficially considered man of the match in the final round, is the player thought to have missed out on winning the award as a result.^[2]

Season	Player	Position	Team
1979	Steve Morris	Halfback	St George Dragons
1980	Robert Laurie	Five-eighth	South Sydney Rabbitohs
1981	Steve Rogers	Centre	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks
1982	Ray Price	Lock	Parramatta Eels
1983	Terry Lamb	Five-eighth	Western Suburbs Magpies
1984	Michael Potter	Fullback	Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs
1985	Greg Alexander	Halfback	Penrith Panthers
1986	Peter Sterling	Halfback	Parramatta Eels (2)
1987	Peter Sterling (2)	Halfback	Parramatta Eels (3)
1988	Gavin Miller	Second-row	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks (2)
1989	Gavin Miller (2)	Second-row	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks (3)
1990	Cliff Lyons	Five-eighth	Manly Warringah Sea Eagles
1991	Michael Potter (2)	Fullback	St George Dragons (2)
1992	Gary Freeman	Halfback	Eastern Suburbs Roosters
1993	Ricky Stuart	Halfback	Canberra Raiders
1994	Cliff Lyons (2)	Five-eighth	Manly Warringah Sea Eagles (2)
1995	Laurie Daley	Five-eighth	Canberra Raiders (2)
1996	Allan Langer	Halfback	Brisbane Broncos
1998	Andrew Johns	Halfback	Newcastle Knights
1999	Andrew Johns (2)	Halfback	Newcastle Knights (2)
2000	Trent Barrett	Five-eighth	St George Illawarra Dragons
2001	Preston Campbell	Halfback, Fullback	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks (4)
2002	Andrew Johns (3)	Halfback	Newcastle Knights (3)
2003	Not awarded due to industrial action
2004	Danny Buderus	Hooker	Newcastle Knights (4)
2005	Johnathan Thurston	Halfback	North Queensland Cowboys
2006	Cameron Smith	Hooker	Melbourne Storm
2007	Johnathan Thurston (2)	Halfback	North Queensland Cowboys (2)
2008	Matt Orford	Halfback	Manly Warringah Sea Eagles (3)
2009	Jarryd Hayne	Fullback	Parramatta Eels (4)
2010	Todd Carney	Five-eighth	Sydney Roosters (2)
2011	Billy Slater	Fullback	Melbourne Storm (2)
2012	Ben Barba	Fullback	Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs (2)
2013	Cooper Cronk	Halfback	Melbourne Storm (3)
2014	Jarryd Hayne (2)	Fullback	Parramatta Eels (5)
	Johnathan Thurston (3)	Five-eighth	North Queensland Cowboys (3)
2015	Johnathan Thurston (4)	Halfback	North Queensland Cowboys (4)
2016	Cooper Cronk (2)	Halfback	Melbourne Storm (4)
	Jason Taumalolo	Lock	North Queensland Cowboys (5)
2017	Cameron Smith (2)	Hooker	Melbourne Storm (5)
2018	Roger Tuivasa-Sheck	Fullback	New Zealand Warriors
2019	James Tedesco	Fullback	Sydney Roosters (3)
2020	Jack Wighton	Five-eighth	Canberra Raiders (3)
2021	Tom Trbojevic	Fullback	Manly Warringah Sea Eagles (4)
2022	Nicho Hynes	Halfback	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks (5)
2023	Kalyn Ponga	Fullback	Newcastle Knights (5)
2024	Jahrome Hughes	Halfback	Melbourne Storm (6)

The following players have won the Dally M Medal multiple times.

Medals	Player	Team	Seasons
4	Johnathan Thurston	North Queensland Cowboys	2005, 2007, 2014, 2015
3	Andrew Johns	Newcastle Knights	1998, 1999, 2002
2	Peter Sterling	Parramatta Eels	1986, 1987
	Gavin Miller	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks	1988, 1989
	Michael Potter	Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, St George Dragons	1984, 1991
	Cliff Lyons	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	1990, 1994
	Jarryd Hayne	Parramatta Eels	2009, 2014
	Cooper Cronk	Melbourne Storm	2013, 2016
	Cameron Smith	Melbourne Storm	2006, 2017

Medals	Team	Seasons
6	Melbourne Storm	2006, 2011, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2024
5	Parramatta Eels	1982, 1986, 1987, 2009, 2014
	North Queensland Cowboys	2005, 2007, 2014, 2015, 2016
	Cronulla Sutherland Sharks	1981, 1988, 1989, 2001, 2022
	Newcastle Knights	1998, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2023
4	Manly Warringah Sea Eagles	1990, 1994, 2008, 2021
3	Sydney Roosters	1992, 2010, 2019
	Canberra Raiders	1993, 1995, 2020
2	St George Dragons	1979, 1991
	Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs	1984, 2012
1	South Sydney Rabbitohs	1980
	Western Suburbs Magpies	1983
	Penrith Panthers	1985
	Brisbane Broncos	1996
	St George Illawarra Dragons	2000
	New Zealand Warriors	2018

• No award in 1997 and 2003
• Multiple winners in 2014 and 2016

• Dally M Awards
• Clive Churchill Medal
• Man of Steel Award
• Brownlow Medal

• Rothmans Medal at qrl.com.au
• Dally M Medla at hunterlink.net.au