Dally M Medal Dally M Medal was awarded by the "Daily Mirror" newspaper. After each game, rugby league sports commentators vote to award three votes to the best player, two votes to the second-best player, and one vote to the third-best player. Additionally, a player will lose three votes for each week of suspension that he incurs during the season. The votes for each round are made public up to Round 16 (26-round season), then are kept secret; this allows the final winner to be kept secret until the Dally M Awards ceremony. The Rothmans Medal was the first official player-of-the-year award to
Dally M Awards NRL met their demands, the NRL cancelled the Dally M awards two days prior to the ceremony. Craig Gower would have been named player of the year had the awards not been cancelled. Gower was subsequently awarded the inaugural RLPA Players Player Medal in recognition of his 2003 NRL season exploits, and his central role in the dispute that saw the creation of the games first overarching workplace agreement 8 months after the boycott. The 2014 Dally M Medal was held on 29 September 2014 and was won jointly by Jarryd Hayne and Johnathan Thurston of the North Queensland Cowboys.