Fiji Bati fullback Sunia Turuva is leading the race for the Ken Irvine Medal in the NRL after scoring his first career hat-trick for the Panthers on Thursday night against the Sydney Roosters.
Turuva now has 6 tries to his name this season, two more than Diene Mariner of the Broncos and Tyrell Sloan of Dragons.
Since 2018, the NRL’s top try scorer has been awarded the Ken Irvine Medal, named after legendary try-scoring machine Ken Irvine.
Along with being the fastest man of his time, Irvine kew his way to the tryline, crossing for 171 tries in 176 premiership games for the North Sydney Bears along with 33 tries in 33 Test matches for the Kangaroos.
In all, Irvine scored 385 tries in 432 first class games.
Newcastle’s Dom Young claimed the 2023 Ken Irvine Medal, crossing 25 times for the Newcastle Knights.
He’s the first Knights player to top the try scorers’ ladder since Akuila Uate scored 21 from 24 games in 2010, sharing the crown with Shaun Kenny-Dowall.
Meanwhile, Eels winger Maika Sivo also clinched the honor in 2019 after scoring 22 tries.
