The long list of nominees for the 2025 IRL Golden Boot award has been released—and we do mean long.
No less than 18 players have been nominated for the prestigious honour, with the IRL also reserving the right to add even more names to the list depending upon events in this weekend’s final window of international matches for 2025.
While many of the names were expected for ‘best player in the world’ consideration, plenty were not with eyebrows raised at the inclusion of players such as Reuben Cotter, Edwin Ipape, Matthew Timoko and Lachlan Lam.
Twelve months ago, a similarly controversial list of candidates saw SEN radio’s Andrew Voss declare the Golden Boot was becoming little more than a ‘participation award’.
“The premise is the best player in the world, you don’t have to put everyone in, it’s a farce,” Voss bemoaned.
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Now with the release of this season’s Golden Boot nominees one of Voss’ SEN colleagues has been equally as vocal.
Speaking on SENQ radio on Friday morning, former Australian international Corey Parker raised concerns both about the list of nominees and the method now used to select the winner, which is based solely on performances in international matches.
“The whole allocation of players on the list, seriously with no disrespect to the individuals, some them should not be given a Golden Boot,” Parker said.
“There’s only been two games and it’s picked out of three games of international footy, so if you win a man of the match you’re a real chance.”
Parker was then drawn on who he thinks should win the award in 2025.
“If we’re going to be fair dinkum about that group (of nominees) Payne Haas would have to be a front runner, but if you’re picking purely based on the nominees then you’d probably be going with Dylan Brown from the kiwis.”
A final short list will be announced after this weekend’s Pacific Cup final between New Zealand and Samoa, with the 2025 IRL Golden Boot winner to be chosen by former greats Darren Lockyer, Cameron Smith, Ruben Wiki, James Graham and Petero Civoniceva.
2025 IRL Golden Boot Nominees (Long List)
| Dylan Brown | New Zealand |
| Jahream Bula | Fiji |
| Reuben Cotter | Australia |
| Angus Crichton | Australia |
| Harry Grant | Australia |
| Edwin Ipape | Papua New Guinea |
| Payne Haas | Samoa |
| Lachlan Lam | Papua New Guinea |
| Moses Leota | New Zealand |
| Jarome Luai | Samoa |
| Casey McLean | New Zealand |
| Cameron Munster | Australia |
| Jeremiah Nanai | Samoa |
| Isaiah Papali’i | New Zealand |
| Junior Paulo | Samoa |
| Joseph Tapine | New Zealand |
| Matthew Timoko | New Zealand |
| Reece Walsh | Australia |