Nathan Cleary and Tamika Upton win the 2026 Dally M Medals: final votes and what the results mean
Cleary won his first NRL player-of-the-year medal by 14 points, while Upton secured her third NRLW crown after a two-point finish.
Verified brief
The story in 60 seconds
Nathan Cleary won the 2026 Dally M Medal with 67 votes, finishing 14 clear of Braydon Trindall and 15 ahead of Dylan Edwards. Brisbane fullback Tamika Upton won the NRLW Dally M with 31 votes, two ahead of Raecene McGregor and eight ahead of Tarryn Aiken. It is Cleary's first Dally M and Upton's third. The final tables resolve the result that had remained hidden since voting went behind closed doors after Round 12.
This brief and the full story below are based on the disclosed sources. SearchTrends Daily’s interpretation appears later under “Our take.”
Full reporting
The complete story
The direct answer is now official: Penrith halfback Nathan Cleary and Brisbane fullback Tamika Upton are the 2026 Dally M Medal winners.
Cleary finished on 67 votes in the NRL count. Cronulla halfback Braydon Trindall was second on 53 and Penrith fullback Dylan Edwards third on 52. The 14-point winning margin made the final result decisive, even though the public leaderboard had been hidden for the second half of the regular season. The medal is Cleary's first after a season in which he played 23 games and recorded 29 try assists.
Upton won the NRLW count with 31 votes. Wests Tigers halfback Raecene McGregor finished on 29 and Sydney Roosters playmaker Tarryn Aiken on 23. Upton's third medal extends a remarkable run: she also defended the title she won last season. The NRL's account says six points in the penultimate round, followed by one in Round 11, carried her past McGregor in the closing stages.
The awards were decided on regular-season performances. Cleary was unable to attend the Sydney ceremony while recovering from an ankle injury, but the result stands as an individual recognition of the season completed before that injury.
Source perspectives
What other reporting adds
These are the reports, official records, and trend observations used to build the story. The note under each link explains exactly what it contributes.
Official result, final vote totals and the main NRL and NRLW award outcomes.
Read original source ↗National Rugby LeagueDally M Medal 2026: the NRL's night of nightsOfficial awards-night coverage and category results.
Read original source ↗National Rugby LeagueCleary in control as Dally M voting goes behind closed doorsOfficial Round 12 leaderboard and the point at which public voting updates ended.
Read original source ↗National Rugby LeagueThe Dally M voting processOfficial explanation of the two-judge 3-2-1 system, silent-voting period and eligibility rules.
Read original source ↗The GuardianNathan Cleary completes NRL boxset with his first Dally M medalIndependent reporting on both winners, their margins and season context.
Read original source ↗SearchTrends Daily opinion
Our take
Analysis
What the evidence and search signal suggest
The final margins tell two distinct stories. Cleary's count is about separation: after leading by only three when voting went silent, he ended 14 clear of the field. Trindall actually collected one more point than Cleary over the hidden portion of the season, but he began 15 points behind and could not close the full gap. Edwards remained close to Trindall, giving Penrith two players in the top three.
Upton's count is about timing. A two-point win means her six-point performance in the penultimate round was decisive, while the following single point was still valuable. That is a useful reminder that the leaderboard measures repeated match assessments, not a panel's single end-of-season choice.
Neither result should be read as a direct forecast for the grand final. Dally M voting ends with the regular season, and team results in the finals depend on availability, match-ups and collective performance. Cleary's injury is especially important context: the medal recognises what he produced during the voting period, not his capacity to play the next match.
Analysis and commentary are SearchTrends Daily’s interpretation. They are intentionally separated from the sourced account above.
Meaning
Why this matters
The Dally M is the NRL and NRLW's central regular-season individual award, so the final count does more than produce two names. It shows how consistently the judges rated each winner across the season.
For Cleary, the result fills the most conspicuous gap in an already decorated career. He had won premierships, Clive Churchill Medals and the 2026 Wally Lewis Medal, but not the Dally M. The 14-point margin suggests the award was not decided by one late match or a tie-break: his advantage grew substantially after the public leaderboard disappeared.
For Upton, a third medal strengthens a different argument. Winning once can reflect a peak season; winning three times across four seasons shows sustained influence in a rapidly developing NRLW competition. Her two-point margin also makes the final rounds important to understanding the result, rather than treating the early leaderboard as a reliable prediction.
Background
How we got here
The public NRL leaderboard closed after Round 12. At that point Cleary led on 38 votes, three ahead of Jackson Ford, with Edwards on 32 and Trindall on 23. The competition's published process says two independent judges assess every premiership match and award 3-2-1 votes. Their votes can therefore produce up to six points for one player in a match.
From Round 13, the totals stayed behind closed doors until the awards ceremony. That silence is designed to preserve uncertainty, but it also means pre-awards predictions are necessarily incomplete. Cleary ultimately added 29 points after Round 12, while Trindall added 30 and Edwards 20. Trindall's late surge was strong enough to move him from sixth on the public table to second, but not enough to erase Cleary's lead.
The award is separate from the Rugby League Players Association's Players' Champion, which is voted on by players. Cleary and Upton also received those honours this week, but the overlap should not be mistaken for one ballot confirming the other. They are different awards with different voting constituencies.
Outlook
What is likely to happen next
The immediate next event is the NRL grand final, but Cleary's medal and his injury status are separate questions. Team announcements and official medical updates—not the awards-night result—will determine who is available and how the match is approached.
For the awards themselves, the useful follow-up evidence would be the complete official round-by-round voting record, any correction issued by the NRL and the final publication of all category results. We would revise this account if the NRL changes a vote total, eligibility ruling or award recipient.
What would change our analysis? A corrected count that materially narrows or widens either margin, or official voting data showing a different late-season pattern. Until then, the confirmed conclusion is straightforward: Cleary won the NRL medal by 14 points for his first title, and Upton won the NRLW medal by two points for her third.
A conditional editorial assessment based on the evidence available at the review date, not a guaranteed outcome.
Live record
Updates to this story
No material updates yet.
Commentary
What we think
SearchTrends Daily opinion: the strongest case for both winners is the shape of the count, not the size of their reputations. Cleary turned a narrow public lead into a commanding final margin, while Upton found the votes required when the NRLW race was tightest. The fairest reading is that the system rewarded season-long influence in two very different contests.