Three Dally Ms, five premierships: the record Tamika Upton takes into another grand final

Tamika Upton has become the first NRLW player to win three Dally M Medals, claiming the 2026 award with the Brisbane Broncos. She polled 31 points to finish ahead of Wests Tigers' Raecene McGregor on 29, and was also named Dally M Fullback of the Year and selected in the Team of the Year alongside Broncos winger Julia Robinson.

The timing is familiar. Upton was crowned with the grand final only days away, and on Sunday she lines up against the Sydney Roosters in the season decider.

Three medals, two clubs

Upton's first medal came in 2023 with the Newcastle Knights. In that season she scored five tries in 10 games, added eight try assists and 11 line breaks, and helped Newcastle to the minor premiership with an 8–1 record.

What followed confirmed her standing. Newcastle beat the Gold Coast Titans 24–18 in the grand final to win back-to-back premierships, and Upton ran for 195 metres with three tackle breaks on the way to her second straight Karyn Murphy Medal as player of the match. NRL.com noted that she had matched Johnathan Thurston's 2015 feat of winning the Dally M Medal and grand final player of the match in the same season. ABC News went further, describing her 2023 campaign as the greatest single-season performance in NRLW history and pointing to how far her playmaking had developed: she had become as adept at creating chances for others as she was at finishing them.

Her second medal came after she moved home to Brisbane for 2025. She finished on 35 points, three clear of team-mate Julia Robinson, and in doing so became the first player to win two NRLW Dally M Medals. Her path to that medal was not straightforward: she sat seventh when voting went behind closed doors after Round 5, 12 points behind Roosters captain Isabelle Kelly.

The 2025 numbers need careful handling because the two official accounts measure different things. NRL.com recorded 18 tries, 14 try assists and 18 line breaks across the regular season. The announcement of her Players' Champion award, voted by NRLW players, credited her with competition-leading totals of 19 tries, 19 line breaks, 14 try assists and 17 line-break assists, and said she scored or set up a try in every game she played. Global Sportswoman reports each set of figures as its source stated them rather than merging them.

That season ended with a premiership. Brisbane beat the Roosters 22–18 in the 2025 grand final, with centre Mele Hufanga scoring in the 65th minute to secure the Broncos' first title since 2020 and end Sydney's hopes of an undefeated season.

Five premierships, properly counted

Upton's premiership tally is often quoted without its clubs, so it is worth setting out. The Broncos list three premierships with Brisbane, in 2019, 2020 and 2025. Before the 2023 decider the Knights described her as a three-time premiership winner who had played a crucial role in Newcastle's maiden premiership in 2022, and the 2023 grand final win made her the first player to win four NRLW titles. Her Broncos profile now records her as the first player to win five NRLW premierships.

The counts are consistent rather than contradictory: three titles with Brisbane and two with Newcastle make five in total.

The 2026 season

Upton is 29. Born in Rockhampton, she made her NRLW debut for the Broncos on 15 September 2019 and later played for the Knights before returning to Brisbane. She was a Broncos co-captain in 2025.

The Broncos credit her 2026 season with 15 tries, 20 try assists, 62 tackle breaks and 20 line breaks, at an average of 157 run metres per game. The club did not say whether those totals include finals matches, so they are presented here as season figures rather than regular-season figures.

Read against her 2025 regular season, the shape of her output appears to have shifted: fewer tries, but more try assists. That is an analytical comparison, not an official one, and the two samples are not identical. It does, however, fit the trajectory ABC News identified in 2023, when it highlighted her growth as a creator.

Brisbane's route to the decider was less commanding than a year earlier. ABC News observed that the Broncos had not quite been the dominant force they were in 2025, but showed their class in beating the Gold Coast in the preliminary final, a 20–8 result on 27 September.

What comes next

Sunday's grand final is a rematch of the 2025 decider against the Roosters. It also carries a farewell: Ali Brigginshaw, one of the defining figures of the NRLW's early years, will play her final game.

For Upton, the medal settles one question already. No NRLW player has won the Dally M more often. A win on Sunday would give her a sixth NRLW premiership. Global Sportswoman will report the grand final result once it has been verified.