"He should be," says teammate Elijah Taylor. "If he's not up there, it's rigged. Ben has been our best player all season. He's always putting his hand up for a run. He does the tough carries.
"He draws defenders, he can pass, good feet - he's one of the best props in the game."
Plenty around the traps agree. Always a menacing tackler, Matulino has emerged as a dominant ball carrier. He ranks seventh among props in total metres, while among frontrowers who have played more than five games, he ranks fourth in metres per game.
He's just 23, but Matulino is already a complete player.
"His development over the last two to three years has been phenomenal," says Steve Price, a player who for many ranks as the club's greatest prop.
Price's consistency and longevity bordered on the freakish. Having converted from a wide-ranging backrower himself, Price sees plenty of his own game in Matulino.
"He has really understood at a young age what it's about," Price says. "One of the harder things for a young player to get is what his role is and to be able to do it every week.
"His speed, his footwork, his agility and the ball skills he had as a young kid that were a real strength for him in the back row have become a real strength in the front row. He's a big enough lad to be able to cop the traffic and the hits but he's smarter now.
"He gets the quickest play-the-balls in the team just through how he runs the footy. He was very upright when he started, now he's changed how he goes into the tackle."
With Sam Rapira and Jacob Lillyman injured, Matulino found himself thrust into a senior role this season.
"We've really needed someone to stand up and he's done it," Price says. "He's been fantastic. He's up there with the best in the game."
While he is a vastly different physical specimen from the slightly tubby, big-haired youngster who came up from Wellington and terrorised age-group defences, it is a mental breakthrough that Matulino credits most for helping to take his game to new heights.
"I understand my role a bit more than I used to," he says. "It's probably knowing what I can take my body through as well. I test myself during the game and try to get in as many carries as I can before I die out.
"I play 20-minute stints and when it gets to the last five minutes, I know that's when the tough bit is coming up. From there I just need to work hard."
Those words pretty much echo what Price tells Matulino when he contacts him for feedback on his performance.
"Ivan [Cleary] used to say to me, 'I'm only going to take you off if your body language is telling me you don't want to be out there'," Price says.
"If I was behind the play-the-ball with my hands on my hips, I was off. It's the same with Benny. When he comes off he may be stuffed but you see that look on his face that he doesn't want to come off.
"That's a far different Benny Matulino to when he was younger. He'd get the old tired head on and he couldn't wait to get off. Now, he just keeps going."
Worryingly for opposing forwards, most believe Matulino still has significant improvement left in him.
"If he lowers his centre of gravity just a little he'll snap blokes in half," says Ruben Wiki, the club's defensive coach and someone who knows plenty about doing just that.
"He's got a good engine for a frontrower and making those hits when they really count, that's huge for the boys' camaraderie."
It's a reflection of Matulino's status and influence that when he does finally quit the field, the Warriors often seem to fall into a hole. When he returns, things usually start looking up again.
"It's pretty much what's expected of me," he shrugs. "I've still got heaps to work on. My D, getting back to the line, is a bit shocking."
As for the Dally M, Price believes the award is often more of a popularity contest than a genuine measure of who is the game's best player.
"But it's good to see Benny up there. He's been our best all year and obviously the people who have been watching the games have seen that as well. One of the hardest things in the NRL is to be able to do it every week."
Last year in 28 games Matulino amassed just two Dally M points; this year he has 12 from 13 games. He's still not going to win, but he doesn't really care.
"People keep reminding me on Twitter that I'm not too far from the top but I'm not really focusing on that.
"If we string together some wins, I'll be a lot happier."
Dally M Leaderboard
18: C Cronk (MEL)
17: B Slater (MEL)
16: J Thurston (NQL)
15: G Inglis (SOU)
14: P Wallace (BRI)
13: A Woods (WTI)
13: P Gallen (CRO)
12: B Matulino (NZL)
12: B Marshall (WTI)
12: B Barba (CBY)
12: M Bowen (NQL)
12: M Pearce (SYD)
