The highest paid NRL players of 2025, ranked
With Dylan Brown signing a ten year, $13 million contract, NRL players are being paid more than ever. Here, we rank the league’s highest earners
By Cayle Reid
RUGBY LEAGUE is a gruelling profession. It would take quite a lot of money for us to consider picking up a career where our primary duty is to have our head rattled by a group of enormous, 120-kilogram men for 80 minutes every week. Just how much money, you ask? Well, the NRL’s minimum salary of $135,000 certainly wouldn’t be enough – there are plenty of jobs where you can earn that kind of coin without sacrificing a few vertebrae. What about for $13 million paid out over ten years…? For that price, we may reconsider.
In case the above figure has gone over your head and you think we’ve picked $13 million at random, allow us to explain. That’s the total value of the new contract Parramatta Eels five-eighth Dylan Brown agreed to with the Newcastle Knights, a deal that will keep him at the club until 2036.
It’s the richest contract in NRL history, but Brown is not alone among the league’s high earners. A million dollar salary was once reserved for rugby league immortals, but nowadays just about every team has a player on its payroll making seven figures a year.
So, who are the highest paid players in the NRL for the 2025 season? It’s not Brown, for starters, because his new contract won’t kick in until next year. The NRL’s richest players are all earning more than $1 million this year, though. Here they are ranked from ten to one, according to both verified contracts and estimated figures from the league’s frenetic rumour mill.
Who are the highest paid NRL players?
10. Nicho Hynes, Cronulla Sharks
2025 salary: $1.1 million
The first of a few Dally M medallists on this list, Nicho Hynes took out the NRL’s top honour in 2022 and has carved himself a reputation as one of the league’s best halfbacks. Hynes’ Cronulla Sharks look despondent without their star, but Hynes has struggled with injuries and consistency since signing a new contract in 2023. If his next deal is to keep him earning above the million dollar mark, Hynes will need to prove his worth.
9. Tom Trbojevic, Manly Sea Eagles
2025 salary: $1.1 million
If he’s healthy – and that’s a big if – Tom Trbojevic might just be the best player in the NRL. The only problem is, the 2021 Dally M medallist can rarely stay injury-free for a full season. In fact, 2024 was the first time in the last seven years that Trbojevic managed to play 20 games in a season – even in his Dally M-winning season, he only played 18 games. The Sea Eagles pay Trbojevic for what he’s capable of when he’s on the field though, not the time he spends off it.
8. Tino Fa’asuamaleaui, Gold Coast Titans
2025 salary: $1.2 million
Tino Fa’asuamaleaui became the youngest captain in NRL history when he was appointed the Gold Coast Titans armband-wearer in 2021. A barnstorming forward, Fa’asuamaleaui is one of the most impactful middles in rugby league, whether he’s playing for the Titans, Queensland or Australia. But while he’s found success outside of club-level, the 25-year-old has been one of the Titans’ only consistent players since his arrival at the team in 2021. The club has only made the finals once in the four seasons Tino has served as captain, finishing no higher than eighth.
7. Payne Haas, Brisbane Broncos
2025 salary: $1.2 million
A wrecking ball of a front-rower at 194cm and 119kg, Payne Haas is one of the NRL’s most impactful forwards. Capable of playing the full 80 minutes and taking a hit up on every set, Haas is the engine of the Brisbane Broncos. The 25-year-old nearly left the Broncos in 2023 before signing a three-year extension. Now, with his extension set to run out in 2026, Haas will again be given an opportunity to test the market.
6. Daly Cherry-Evans, Manly Sea Eagles
2025 salary: $1.2 million
Daly Cherry-Evans has been a million dollar man for a long time. Back in 2015, the Sea Eagles signed the halfback to an eight-year, $10 million contract that was the biggest in league history at the time. Cherry-Evans re-upped on that deal two years ago, making him one of the highest earners in league history. But for all the Sea Eagles have given Cherry-Evans, the 36-year-old has not rewarded the team with a premiership – or even a grand final appearance – since signing that 2015 contract.
5. Jarome Luai, Wests Tigers
2025 salary: $1.2 million
Lured away from the Penrith Panthers prior to the start of the 2025 season, Jarome Luai joins Wests Tigers with four premierships under his belt and the promise of bringing one to Leichardt. Luai has righted the Panthers’ ship in recent years as Nathan Cleary has faced increasing injury woes. He also carried Samoa all the way to the final of the 2023 Rugby League World Cup. If there’s anyone who knows how to win trophies, it’s Luai.
4. Mitchell Moses, Parramatta Eels
2025 salary: $1.25 million
If you’re wondering why a team would let a player of Dylan Brown’s calibre out of the building, in the Eels’ case it’s because they can’t afford to keep him due to Mitchell Moses’ sizeable contract. The Lebanon international and New South Wales hero has been one of the only bright spots for the Eels since the team lost the 2022 grand final to the Penrith Panthers. In the years since that finals run, the Eels have finished 10th and 15th on the ladder, and are already in dire straits in the 2025 season. The team will want to see some return on investment from Moses soon, or else his next contract might not be so lucrative.
3. Cameron Munster, Melbourne Storm
2025 salary: $1.3 million
Premiership winning halves come at a premium, so it’s no surprise to see Cameron Munster this high up this list. Munster has now played in five grand finals, winning two of them, with the playmaker serving as the salient point of the Storm’s attack and keeping the team towards the top of the ladder in the years since the departures of Cameron Smith, Billy Slater and Cooper Cronk. He’s also kept Queensland competitive against a New South Wales side that is, on paper, far superior.
2. Nathan Cleary, Penrith Panthers
2025 salary: $1.3 million
Is it crazy to say that Nathan Cleary might actually be underpaid with this salary? Cleary’s Penrith Panthers have now won four consecutive premierships and look like they’ll remain in contention as long as their two-time Clive Churchill medallist halfback is on the squad – surely that’s worth a raise.
The trouble with a superteam like the Panthers is keeping it together. When the Panthers won the 2021 NRL grand final, most of the team’s starters were young players on their first contracts. As the years have gone by and those contracts have expired, the Panthers have been unable to keep their squad together, with rival teams siphoning talent away every offseason. Of the 30 players in the 2021 premiership-winning squad, only 11 remain with the Panthers. This is just a further testament to Cleary’s powers, however. As the support group has dwindled, Cleary has kept his team among the league’s best.
1. Kalyn Ponga, Newcastle Knights
2025 salary: $1.4 million
That’s right, the Newcastle Knights have just signed Dylan Brown to the biggest contract in NRL history, but they already have the league’s highest paid player on their team. Kalyn Ponga has proven himself to be well-deserving of such a high retainer. The 2023 Dally M medallist and Queensland regular is almost always the best player on the field for the Knights, whether he’s playing at fullback or slotting into the halves.
Ponga’s contract runs out in 2027, meaning that for two seasons he and Brown will take up 24 per cent of the Knights’ total salary cap. This will leave the team in a tight spot financially, with the other 28 players in the squad only able to make an average of $305,000 to keep the Knights under the salary cap. It’s a high risk manoeuvre, but the team is betting it all on its superstars.
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