In news that will surprise no one, Reece Walsh was voted the unanimous man of the match out of Sunday evening's NRL Grand Final in the final instalment of Zero Tackle's NRL MVP award for 2025.
After James Tedesco claimed honours in the regular season by a heavy margin, Walsh has done the same in the finals, recording a perfect 20 votes in the grand final.
He was already just five votes off the lead held by Penrith winger Paul Alamoti last weekend, but wins by 15 votes, with no other Brisbane or Melbourne players high on the leaderboard claiming high totals in the decider.
In fact, there are no other changes to the top ten for the finals series, with Eliesa Katoa moving to within striking distance after being Melbourne's best on ground in the grand final.
Gehamat Shibasaki, Ezra Mam, Deine Mariner and Jahrome Hughes were the other players to make it onto the vote sheet out of the decider.
As a reminder, our judging panel - made up of Zero Tackle founder Matt Clements, writers Ethan Lee Chalk and Dan Nichols, and myself as editor - cast votes on a 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 basis from every game to determine the overall champion.
Here are our votes from the grand final.
Matt Clements
5 - Reece Walsh
4 - Gehamat Shibasaki
3 - Ezra Mam
2 - Deine Mariner
1 - Eliesa Katoa
Ethan Lee Chalk
5 - Reece Walsh
4 - Ezra Mam
3 - Gehamat Shibasaki
2 - Eliesa Katoa
1 - Jahrome Hughes
Dan Nichols
5 - Reece Walsh
4 - Ezra Mam
3 - Gehamat Shibasaki
2 - Eliesa Katoa
1 - Deine Mariner
Scott Pryde
5 - Reece Walsh
4 - Ezra Mam
3 - Gehamat Shibasaki
2 - Eliesa Katoa
1 - Deine Mariner
Final top ten
| RANK | PLAYER | LAST ROUND | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reece Walsh |
20 | 51 |
| 2 | Paul Alamoti |
0 | 36 |
| 3 | Cameron Munster |
0 | 35 |
| 4 | Braydon Trindall |
0 | 30 |
| 4 | Nathan Cleary |
0 | 30 |
| 6 | Brian To'o |
0 | 26 |
| 6 | Stefano Utoikamanu |
0 | 26 |
| 8 | Payne Haas |
0 | 24 |
| 9 | Jonah Pezet |
0 | 18 |
| 9 | Nicho Hynes |
0 | 18 |
Click here to view the final NRL finals MVP leaderboard in full.
