Fullback Taine Tuaupiki has edged out Simon Mannering Medal recipient James Fisher-Harris and 2025 winner Erin Clark to win the 2026 TWL Kingz Container Crew Player of the Year award — based on our weekly KCC-sponsored player ratings — in by far the closest race in This Warriors Life’s nine seasons assessing every player’s performance in every Warriors game.
Fashioned on now-defunct Rugby League Week‘s system of giving every player a rating out of 10 for every game, which Will Evans has been dishing out for each Warriors game since the start of 2018, the TWL POTY gong goes to Warriors player with the most accumulated points at the end of the season (including finals matches). To give players that miss a few games with injury and rep duty an opportunity to still vie for the honour, we’ve eliminated every player’s four lowest scores at the end of year (including matches missed).
Tuaupiki’s sizzling finish to the season carried him to the King Container Crew prize, lifting him just half a point ahead of inspirational co-captain Fisher-Harris — who in turn was only half a point in front of No.13 ironman Clark. Veteran mainstays Wayde Egan and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak rounded out the top five.
The 27-year-old’s success represents arguably the most remarkable victory in the TWL award’s history, given he was not named to start in the opening two rounds, was left out for Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad on another occasion and only came back into the team as a late inclusion in the penultimate round after initially being listed on the six-man bench.
Tuaupiki had only made 25 NRL appearances (including eight on the wing and three off the bench) coming into 2026, but he ultimately featured in 22 of 26 in the Warriors’ record-breaking campaign.
Here’s how the leaderboard finished up.
TWL KINGZ CONTAINER CREW 2026 PLAYER OF THE YEAR AWARD FINAL LEADERBOARD
166 – Taine Tuaupiki
165.5 – James Fisher-Harris
165 – Erin Clark
158.5 – Wayde Egan
156 – Dallin Watenze-Zelezniak
152.5 – Jacob Laban
147.5 – Demitric Vaimauga
143.5 – Chanel Harris-Tavita
141.5 – Tanner Stowers-Smith
139.5 – Leka Halasima
The TWL King Container Crew Warriors Player of the Year award rewards durability as well as excellence and consistency, essentially ruling out a host of outstanding contributors who only played half a season.
With that in mind, the player ratings averages are a more accurate indication of how each Warrior performed across the campaign — and Tuaupiki led the pack on that score, too, shading indefatigable prop Mitch Barnett and Jackson Ford, with Tanah Boyd, JFH and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck not far behind.
TWL KINGZ CONTAINER CREW 2026 PLAYER OF THE YEAR AWARD – HIGHEST AVERAGE SCORES (minimum 5 games)
7.55 — Taine Tuaupiki
7.53 — Mitch Barnett
7.50 — Jackson Ford
7.44 — Tanah Boyd
7.43 — James Fisher-Harris
7.38 — Roger Tuivasa-Sheck
7.19 — Erin Clark
7.15 — Te Maire Martin
7.09 — Dallin Watene-Zelezniak
7.08 — Tanner Stowers-Smith
Here’s a few more odds and ends to come out of the 2026 TWL Kingz Container Crew Player Ratings countback:
Among regular starting line-up players in 2026, oft-maligned centres Adam Pompey (5.62) and Ali Leiatauta (6.18) finished with the lowest average ratings.
Six players in 2026 finished with a higher average rating than Roger Tuivasa-Sheck’s team-leading 2025 average of 7.33. Addin Fonua-Blake (who took out the overall award) had the Warriors’ best average rating in 2024 with 7.39, while Shaun Johnson claimed the award in 2023 after averaging a record high 7.84 per game.
The highest individual score recorded during 2026 was 9, achieved by Jackson Ford and Tanah Boyd in Round 3 against Newcastle, Erin Clark in Round 11 against Brisbane and Wayde Egan in Round 16 against North Queensland. There was 36 individual scores of 8.5 handed out during the season — with Taine Tuapiki and Chanel Harris-Tavita notching four of those each, and Te Maire Martin and Leka Halasima three each.
Tuaupiki, Ford (twice), Boyd, Fisher-Harris (twice), Tuivasa-Sheck and Martin all pieced together three-game runs of scoring a rating of 8 or higher, while Clark managed 8-plus in four straight games and Barnett put together a remarkable late-season streak of five consecutive ratings of 8 or more.
Tuaupiki joins 2021 winner Jazz Tevaga, 2024 recipient Fonua-Blake and 2025 winner Clark as the only players to win the TWL award without also collecting the Simon Mannering Medal.
THIS WARRIORS LIFE PLAYER OF THE YEAR AWARD – ROLL OF HONOUR
2018 – Roger Tuivasa-Sheck
2019 – Roger Tuivasa-Sheck
2020 – Tohu Harris
2021 – Jazz Tevaga
2022 – Euan Aitken
2023 – Shaun Johnson
2024 – Addin Fonua-Blake
2025 – Erin Clark
2026 – Taine Tuaupiki
