After putting together a top ten performance during the regular season, Newcastle Knights fullback Kalyn Ponga has taken his game to a new level in the finals and has taken a commanding lead of Zero Tackle's finals MVP.
He had a 20-vote effort in the opening week of the finals, and now Ponga has managed another 19 votes on Sunday afternoon against the New Zealand Warriors, being voted as the best player on the park by all but one of four judges.
Mark Nawaqanitawase has been the other consistent force across the opening two weeks of the final to sit in second spot, although he is now 13 votes off the lead.
Both Dylan Edwards and Herbie Farnworth had the week off so couldn't back up their perfect 20 from Round 1, while Siosifa Talakai also had 20 in the opening week but failed to score this time around.
Daly Cherry-Evans and James Tedesco, as well as Leka Halasima, all polled strongly to be named the best on the park by at least one judge across the two games, and sit in the top ten.
Halasima is now eliminated from finals contention, but for the remainder of the top ten, this weekend will be pivotal, with results also to play a factor given we will award double points in the grand final.
As a reminder of how this works, as it did for the regular season, our four-person voting panel of Matt Clements (Zero Tackle founder), Dan Nichols and Leo Twemlow (Zero Tackle writers) and myself as editor will award votes on a 5-4-3-2-1 basis across the course of the finals series.
Here are the votes for Week 2 of the finals.
| Matt Clements | Scott Pryde | Dan Nichols | Leo Twemlow | |
| 5 | James Tedesco | James Tedesco | Daly Cherry-Evans | Daly Cherry-Evans |
| 4 | Mark Nawaqanitawase | Reece Robson | Robert Toia | James Tedesco |
| 3 | Daly Cherry-Evans | Daly Cherry-Evans | Mark Nawaqanitawase | Mark Nawaqanitawase |
| 2 | Robert Toia | Mark Nawaqanitawase | James Tedesco | Robert Toia |
| 1 | Hugo Savala | Braydon Trindall | Reece Robson | Addin Fonua-Blake |
| Matt Clements | Scott Pryde | Dan Nichols | Leo Twemlow | |
| 5 | Leka Halasima | Kalyn Ponga | Kalyn Ponga | Kalyn Ponga |
| 4 | Kalyn Ponga | Leka Halasima | Leka Halasima | Leka Halasima |
| 3 | Fletcher Sharpe | Fletcher Sharpe | Fletcher Sharpe | Fletcher Sharpe |
| 2 | Phoenix Crossland | Phoenix Crossland | Phoenix Crossland | Phoenix Crossland |
| 1 | Kurt Capewell | Kurt Capewell | Kurt Capewell | Bradman Best |
Top ten
| RANK | PLAYER | LAST ROUND | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kalyn Ponga |
19 | 39 |
| 2 | Mark Nawaqanitawase |
12 | 26 |
| 3 | Dylan Edwards |
0 | 20 |
| 3 | Herbie Farnworth |
0 | 20 |
| 3 | Siosifa Talakai |
0 | 20 |
| 6 | Daly Cherry-Evans |
16 | 18 |
| 7 | James Tedesco |
16 | 17 |
| 7 | Leka Halasima |
17 | 17 |
| 9 | Jermaine McEwen |
0 | 14 |
| 10 | Fletcher Sharpe |
12 | 12 |
