The highest paid NRL players of 2026, 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 contract Knights five-eighth Dylan Brown signed last year, a deal that will keep him in Newcastle 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 2026 season? There’s Brown, obviously, but he’s only the joint-highest earner. Here’s the highest paid players in the NRL 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 in 2026?
10. Cameron Munster, Melbourne Storm
2026 salary: $1.1 million
Premiership winning halves come at a premium, so it’s no surprise to see Cameron Munster on this list. Munster has now played in six 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 on top against a New South Wales side that is, on paper, far superior. But then again, maybe New South Wales just don’t get Origin.
9. Latrell Mitchell, South Sydney Rabbitohs
2026 salary: $1.1 million
The Rabbitohs pried Latrell Mitchell away from their bitter rivals, the Sydney Roosters, back in 2020. A series of extensions have gradually raised his pay since then, the latest of which came in 2023 and took Mitchell’s salary above the million-dollar mark. While undoubtedly one of the most talented players in the NRL, Mitchell has struggled to stay fit and consistent in his time with South Sydney. When his current contract runs out at the end of next season, he could drop off this list.
8. Payne Haas, Brisbane Broncos
2026 salary: $1.15 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 and was pivotal in their 2025 premiership run. In news that shocked the rugby league world, Haas will be joining the South Sydney Rabbitohs from 2027. Given that the Rabbitohs already have two players earning over $1 million per year in Latrell Mitchell and Cameron Murray, a salary cap squeeze can be expected.
7. Tino Fa’asuamaleaui, Gold Coast Titans
2026 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 valuable middles in rugby league, whether he’s playing for the Titans, Queensland or Australia – or, if he decides to switch allegiances ahead of the World Cup, Samoa. 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 in that time) and have finished in the bottom four for four consecutive seasons.
6. Jarome Luai, Wests Tigers
2026 salary: $1.2 million
Lured away from the Penrith Panthers prior to the start of the 2025 season, Jarome Luai joined the Wests Tigers with four premierships under his belt and aspirations of bringing one to Leichardt. The Tigers do seem to be on the up and up, but a premiership is still a long way away for the team who has the longest active finals drought in the NRL. It has now been 15 years since the Tigers played a postseason game, but with Luai at the helm, that drought could soon be broken.
5. Kalyn Ponga, Newcastle Knights
2026 salary: $1.2 million
Part of what made the Knights’ decision to sign Dylan Brown to the league’s biggest contract so shocking was that they already had another high earner on their books. 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.
4. Tom Trbojevic, Manly Sea Eagles
2026 salary: $1.25 million
If he’s healthy – and that’s a big if – Tom Trbojevic is one of the best fullbacks 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.
3. Mitchell Moses, Parramatta Eels
2026 salary: $1.25 million
Dual Lebanon-Australia international and New South Wales hero Mitchell Moses 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, 15th and 11th on the ladder, but are now on the rise again thanks to a youth movement. Moses is under contract until the end of 2029, at which time he will be 34 and close to retirement.
2. Nathan Cleary, Penrith Panthers
2026 salary: $1.3 million
Is it crazy to say that Nathan Cleary might actually be underpaid with this salary? Cleary’s Penrith Panthers won four consecutive premierships from 2021-24 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. That’s just another testament to Cleary’s ability, however. As the support group has dwindled, Cleary has kept his team among the league’s best.
1. Dylan Brown, Newcastle Knights
2026 salary: $1.3 million
When Dylan Brown signed the richest contract in NRL history last year, it was met with some trepidation. $13 million over 10 years is a lot to give a player who never really been considered one of the league’s best. But since debuting for the Knights, Brown has silenced much of the doubt by showing he can guide the team to victory as the lead orchestrator. You’d hope, for the Knights’ sake, that he can keep it up – there’s no return policy on this contract.
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