Dally M Awards 2025 LIVE updates: James Tedesco favourite to take out ultimate prize as red carpet gets under way

The Dally M medal is awarded to the player of the year in both the NRL and NRLW.

Dragons halfback Steve Morris in 1979.Credit: Pearce/Fairfax Media

The medal was first introduced in the men’s competition back in 1979 and was awarded to Dragons halfback Steve Morris.

For the women, the first Dally M medal was introduced in 2015 where it was given to the best Australian player. When the NRLW began in 2018 the women’s Dally M replicated the NRL.

The awards and the medal are named after Herbert Henry ‘Dally’ Messenger – one of Australia’s first professional footballers who played for NSW and Australia.

The Dally M Medal is determined by a 3-2-1 voting system from two independent judges each game. The judges are tasked with assessing the contribution of each player and submitting their votes to the NRL.

This process takes place across every regular season match, and judges allocate three points to the player they believe is the best on field. Two points are then assigned to the player they believe was second-best, and one point to the player they consider the third-best.

Luke Metcalf was leading the 2025 Dally M count before he suffered a season-ending knee injury in June.Credit: Getty Images

The NRL collates the votes and maintains the leaderboard, both of which are made public up to and including Round 12. From Round 13, voting goes ‘behind closed doors’ for the remainder of the regular season with anticipation building towards the announcement of the winner at the Dally M Awards.

In the NRLW, which had an 11-round regular season in 2025, voting went behind closed doors after round five.

The player who polls the highest number of votes over the regular season is crowned the winner of the Dally M Medal.

Good evening, and welcome to rugby league’s night of nights...well, excluding grand final night, of course.

That’s right, it’s the Dally M awards night at Randwick Racecourse, where the NRL announces the best players in each position, and presents the two best players in the men’s and women’s competition with the highly sought-after Dally M medal.

Television coverage of the awards kicks-off at 7.30pm, before the awards get under way at 8pm.

We’ll bring you all the red carpet looks, nominated players and grand final news until then. Enjoy.

Olivia Kernick won the NRLW Dally M medal in 2024.Credit: Getty Images