Who Should Be the 20 Highest-Paid NRLW Players in 2026? | EXCEL Sports Management
There is a difference between being one of the biggest names in the NRLW and being one of its most valuable players.
So we decided to ask a different question.
If NRLW salaries were based on what players are actually producing in 2026, who should be the 20 highest-paid NRLW players?
This is not a list of what these players currently earn. We don't know every player's private contract, and we're not going to pretend we do.
This is an EXCEL Sports Management performance-value ranking.
We have considered running metres, post-contact metres, tries, try assists, line breaks, tackle breaks, defensive workload, efficiency, work rate, consistency, positional demands and the player's overall influence on her team.
Most importantly, we haven't compared every position using the same statistics.
A prop shouldn't have to score 10 tries to be considered as valuable as a fullback.
A halfback's ability to create and control a game matters.
A centre's ability to generate yardage and break tackles matters.
And a middle forward repeatedly carrying into a defensive line, producing post-contact metres and making 25 or 30 tackles needs to be properly recognised.
Value is not one statistic.
Transparency
EXCEL Sports Management currently represents Alexis Tauaneai, Angelina Teakaraanga-Katoa, Jordyn Preston and Shaniece Monschau, who appear in this ranking.
We are declaring that relationship because transparency matters.
Their positions haven't been gifted to them because they are EXCEL players. We have applied the same position-adjusted assessment to them as every other player on this list.
In fact, their statistics are part of the reason we wanted to write this article.
Players in the middle and on the edge can be significantly undervalued when people look only at tries, highlights and running metres.
So, based on 2026 performance and player value, here is our Top 20.
1. Tamika Upton
Our No.1 — and comfortably one of the most influential players in women's rugby league.
Tamika Upton's 2026 numbers are exceptional: through 10 appearances she has 12 tries, 14 try assists, 16 line breaks, 46 tackle breaks and 1,585 running metres.
That's the difference between accumulating statistics and influencing football games.
Upton can finish an opportunity, create one herself or create one for somebody else.
If we were building an NRLW roster today and could choose one marquee player based on current value, Tamika Upton would be our first selection.
2. Tarryn Aiken
Great halves make everyone around them better.
That's why Tarryn Aiken ranks so highly.
Her creativity, decision-making, ability to identify opportunities and influence attacking shape provide enormous value beyond her individual running statistics.
When you're assessing what a player should be worth, you have to ask:
How much better does this player make the team around her?
With Aiken, the answer is significant.
3. Isabelle Kelly
One of the most complete centres in the NRLW.
Kelly combines power, yardage, tackle-breaking ability, experience and attacking threat.
She can get a team out of trouble coming from its own end and then become equally dangerous when attacking close to the opposition line.
That's genuine value.
4. Olivia Kernick
Kernick is exactly why we don't believe player value should be determined by tries alone.
She brings an enormous two-way contribution: carries, post-contact metres, defensive work and the ability to create momentum through the middle and on an edge.
In Round 8 alone she produced 210 running metres in the Roosters' victory over the Warriors.
Elite forwards who can consistently influence both sides of the football are incredibly valuable.
5. Jaime Chapman
There are players who can change the momentum of a game in seconds.
Jaime Chapman is one of them.
Speed, power, tackle-breaking ability and genuine finishing quality make her one of the most dangerous attacking players in the competition.
When Chapman finds space, something can happen.
That ability has enormous value.
6. Sheridan Gallagher
Consistency matters when we're discussing the highest-paid NRLW players in 2026, and Gallagher has continued to demonstrate why she belongs in this conversation.
She combines involvement, running threat and the ability to influence games from the back.
She's not simply waiting for opportunities.
She goes looking for them.
7. Jesse Southwell
We don't judge a quality halfback purely by metres or tries.
Organisation matters.
Kicking matters.
Decision-making matters.
Game management matters.
And bringing the right player onto the football at the right time matters.
Jesse Southwell has already demonstrated an ability to control football games well beyond what you would normally expect from a player still so early in her career.
Her value isn't simply what she does.
It's what she enables everybody around her to do.
8. Teagan Levi
Athletic, explosive and dangerous.
Teagan Levi possesses something clubs will always value: game-breaking ability.
She's capable of creating opportunities that don't necessarily exist for an ordinary player.
As her rugby league experience continues to develop, her ceiling remains enormous.
9. Alexis Tauaneai
This may surprise some people.
It shouldn't.
Alexis Tauaneai is producing one of the most impressive statistical seasons among NRLW middle forwards.
Through 10 appearances in 2026, Alexis has produced:
1,427 running metres
635.9 post-contact metres
293 tackles
11 offloads
2 tries
That's an average of approximately 142 running metres per game while also carrying an enormous defensive workload.
This is precisely why we created a position-adjusted ranking.
Why should a middle forward producing those numbers automatically sit behind an outside back because the outside back scores more tries?
Alexis carries through the middle.
She generates post-contact metres.
She defends.
She works.
And she does it repeatedly.
At only 21, there is still considerable development ahead of her. The NRL itself describes her as a dynamic middle who has been earmarked as a star of the future.
On 2026 output and positional value, we believe Alexis Tauaneai deserves her place inside our Top 10.
10. Evania Isa'ako
Power matters.
Momentum matters.
And the ability of a forward to change what is happening in a game matters.
Evania Isa'ako brings genuine attacking impact and the ability to turn a normal carry into a momentum-changing one.
That's why she completes our Top 10.
11. Angelina Teakaraanga-Katoa
Angelina Teakaraanga-Katoa is extremely close to our Top 10.
And again, look beyond tries.
Through 10 appearances, Angelina has produced 1,112 running metres, 481.1 post-contact metres, 247 tackles, 22 tackle breaks and seven offloads.
That's serious work.
Angelina is also a co-captain at Canterbury, and the NRL describes her as a cornerstone of the Bulldogs' forward pack and one of the competition's toughest middles.
Leadership plus production has value.
She doesn't need to score every week to influence a football game.
The difficult carries matter.
Winning metres after contact matters.
Defensive reliability matters.
Taking a carry when everybody is tired matters.
At No.11, Angelina is one of the first players knocking on the door of our Top 10.
12. Zahara Temara
Experience and game management remain extremely valuable commodities.
Zahara Temara brings leadership, kicking, organisation and an understanding of how to control important periods of a match.
Not everything a half does appears in a highlight reel.
Sometimes the most valuable decision is simply making the correct one.
13. Abbi Church
High involvement and high work rate.
Church continually puts herself in positions to contribute and can generate enormous yardage from the back.
For us, she's another example of why involvement matters when assessing overall player value.
14. Romy Teitzel
Every successful football team needs players who consistently do the difficult work.
Teitzel brings defensive workload, physicality and consistency.
She might not always produce the highlight that dominates social media after the game.
But coaches understand the value of players who repeatedly complete their job.
15. Andie Robinson
Andie Robinson remains an important attacking player and deserves her position inside our Top 20.
Her involvement from fullback and ability to insert herself into attacking opportunities give Canterbury another dimension.
But under our position-adjusted formula, the enormous middle-forward workloads of Tauaneai and Teakaraanga-Katoa carry greater value in our 2026 ranking.
That's exactly why this list looks different from a simple try-scoring or running-metres leaderboard.
16. Ellie Johnston
Another middle who deserves recognition.
Johnston brings physicality, carries, post-contact work and defensive workload.
These are the players who continually absorb the hardest parts of rugby league.
Without effective middles, the players on the outside often don't receive the space that creates the spectacular highlights.
17. Jordyn Preston
Jordyn Preston is one of the more interesting players on this list because we don't believe we're anywhere near seeing the finished product yet.
She's still at the beginning stages of her NRLW career.
But one part of Jordyn's game is becoming increasingly recognisable:
her line running.
Jordyn is developing into a very effective line runner — understanding timing, identifying gaps, changing angles and running lines that ask genuine questions of defensive structures.
And good line running isn't measured simply by whether you receive the football.
Sometimes the value is in holding a defender.
Sometimes it's forcing an inside defender to make a decision.
Sometimes it's creating space for the player outside you.
And sometimes you get the ball and break the line yourself.
Her statistics are developing with her game. Through nine 2026 appearances, Jordyn has recorded 22 tackle breaks and more than 318 post-contact metres.
She also received a Dally M vote in Canberra's Round 2 victory over the Warriors.
The Raiders recognised her development in 2025 with their NRLW Coaches' Award, after she established herself in the starting second row toward the end of that season.
At 23, we believe there is considerable improvement still to come.
Jordyn Preston isn't on this list because of what we believe she might become. She's here because of what she's already contributing — with the exciting part being how much development remains.
18. Shaniece Monschau
Shaniece Monschau is still extremely raw.
And we mean that positively.
She hasn't reached anything close to her ceiling.
Shaniece has already gone from averaging only 48 running metres across her 2025 season to 85 metres per game in 2026, while making 223 tackles at 90.65% efficiency across her 10 appearances for Wests Tigers.
She's also scored two tries.
What makes Shaniece exciting isn't just what she is now.
It's what she can become as her rugby league education, positional understanding, conditioning and experience continue to improve.
She's already been used in different roles through the Tigers' pack, including starting at prop in Round 9.
And we can exclusively reveal through EXCEL Sports Management:
Shaniece Monschau will remain with the Wests Tigers in 2027.
We believe that's an important next step in her development.
Continuity matters.
Development matters.
And for a player who remains relatively raw but is already producing at NRLW level, another year in that environment gives Shaniece an opportunity to take another significant step forward.
Watch her development.
19. Lauren Brown
Lauren Brown demonstrates why experience and composure remain valuable.
Kicking, decision-making, game management and an understanding of critical moments aren't always reflected properly in conventional statistics.
When games become tight, those qualities become even more important.
20. Georgia Hale
Georgia Hale rounds out our Top 20.
Leadership, defensive effort, professionalism, work rate and consistency deserve recognition.
This list was never intended to be the 20 players with the best highlight reels.
It's about value.
And Hale continues to demonstrate the value of reliability and leadership.
So, Who Should Be the Highest-Paid NRLW Player in 2026?
If we had to allocate the biggest contract in the NRLW today based on current performance and overall value:
Tamika Upton.
For us, she's No.1.
But perhaps the more interesting part of this exercise is what happens further down the rankings.
Alexis Tauaneai at No.9 demonstrates why middle forwards shouldn't be forgotten when discussing player value.
Angelina Teakaraanga-Katoa at No.11 demonstrates why leadership, post-contact metres and defensive workload matter.
Jordyn Preston at No.17 demonstrates that effective line running and off-ball value aren't always captured by headline statistics.
And Shaniece Monschau at No.18 demonstrates why development trajectory also matters when clubs consider long-term value.
This is not about saying the player ranked ninth is automatically a better footballer than the player ranked tenth.
Different positions have different responsibilities.
It's about asking a better question:
What value does this player add to her football team?
That's the question players should be asking themselves as well.
Don't chase another player's salary.
Don't chase another player's contract.
Don't chase another player's statistics.
Add value.
Become difficult to replace.
Develop the parts of your game your position requires.
Understand what your team needs from you.
And build a career rather than chasing recognition.
Because ultimately, the players who consistently add value are the players clubs want to keep.
Excel With Us.
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Author note:
This ranking represents EXCEL Sports Management's assessment of 2026 NRLW performance and value. It is not a representation of players' actual salaries or private contractual arrangements. Statistics referenced are from official NRL player data available at the time of writing.
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