One New Zealand Warriors loose forward Erin Clark has bagged double honours from players across the NRL competition.
On Monday he was honoured as the best #13 in the 2025 Players’ Dream Team, voted by peers and organised by the RLPA (Rugby League Players’ Association).
Now fellow players have also judged him the NRL Recruit of the Year, an award introduced for the first time this season.
He was recognised ahead of Brisbane centre Gehamat Shibasaki and props Terrell May (Wests Tigers) and former Warrior Addin Fonua-Blake (Cronulla Sutherland).
Clark returned home this season and transitioned into the One New Zealand Warriors seamlessly.
It said so much about his performances that he was voted at lock in the Players' Dream Team ahead of two of the most highly-rated players in the game in Penrith captain Isaah Yeo and his former Titans skipper Tino Fa'asuamaleaui.
One of four players to appear in each of the Warriors’ 25 games, Clark brought up his 100th career appearance early in the campaign, going on to average 147 metres and 34 tackles a game (95 per cent tackle efficiency).
Starting all but the round one match against Canberra, his numbers were career bests by some distance.
While there are still four teams alive in the finals, his total of 1451 post-contact metres is fifth best in the entire competition bettered by only props Addin Fonua-Blake, Naufahu Whyte and Payne Haas plus winger Daniel Tupou. Among all forwards the only ones to top Clark's total run metres of 3696 are Fonua-Blake, Terrell May and Patrick Carrigan; he topped 100 metres in all 25 matches he played, a feat not achieved by renowned metre eaters Fonua-Blake, Carrigan or Payne Haas.
