NRL: Johnathan Thurston and Jarryd Hayne crowned Dally M Medal dual winners

Johnathan Thurston and Jarryd Hayne have been crowned the first-ever dual winners of the Dally M Medal, the NRL's highest individual honour.

For North Queensland's Test stand-off Thurston it was his third Dally M triumph to emulate Andrew Johns as the only players to win the best player of the season gong three times

It was the second time Hayne has won the major award after the Parramatta superstar was also crowned the game's best player in 2009.

It's a huge honour and I consider myself very lucky to even be next to Thurston.

Thurston and Hayne finished the 26 NRL regular rounds on 32 points - three points ahead of third-placed English forward Sam Burgess of South Sydney.

Another Englishman, Gareth Widdop of St George Illawarra, finished one point behind Burgess in fourth spot on 28 points.

Top points scorer

Thurston was also named NRL stand-off of the year and he also finished top point-scorer for the season with 208 points.

He paid tribute to Hayne and said he was humbled to win three Dally M awards alongside Test scrum-half great Johns.

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"Obviously Haynesy has had a great year, congratulations to the big fella. Hopefully I'll play alongside him over next few weeks (for Australia)," said Thurston, referring to the upcoming Four Nations tournament.

Hayne commented: “It's a huge honour and I consider myself very lucky to even be next to Thurston.”

England internationals Sam Burgess and James Graham have been honoured at the 2014 Dally M Awards for their NRL performances.

Burgess, who left Bradford for South Sydney in 2009 but will move to rugby union side Bath in the coming weeks, was named lock forward of the year.

Graham joined the Bulldogs from St Helens in 2012 and won the front-rower of the year award.

Ivan Cleary was named coach of the year for taking the Penrith Panthers to within one match of the NRL Grand Final.