NZ Kiwis centre Joseph Manu has topped a ranking of the NRL's 'hottest' players, with NZ Warriors teen sensation Reece Walsh pushing hard for top honours.
The Daily Telegraph assembled a short list of 20 of the competition's biggest stars, including Warriors captain Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, and fellow Kiwis Dylan Brown, Shaun Johnson, Kalyn Ponga and Jerome Luai, judged by a panel of talent management, reality stars, models and entertainment media.
Manu was a "resounding" winner, with Walsh also polling well. Manly winger Reuben Garrick, Luai and Melbourne fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen filled out the top five.
But the judges insist they didn't just vote on physical criteria.
"We don't care about bodies," claims Abbie Chatfield, winner of the I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! TV show.
"Men think that having big muscles and going to the gym will make them more likeable to women.
"But women exist through a female gaze obviously, which is why we are able to think about their vibe and their energy and their faces in terms of what makes them a good human.
Says Married at First Sight star Jules Robinson: "We have all looked at it on a deeper level of not just aesthetically what they look like and thought about the kind of person we think they are.
"Men and women just look at things in a different way. Men focus very much on a woman's body, whereas we have looked a the guys' personalities."
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