Cleary was hit with a Grade 2 Careless High Tackle charge by the match review committee<\/a>, Talagi didn\u2019t know if Jack Cogger or Jack Cole might come into the halves as his replacement for the Round 1 match against the Broncos.<\/p>\n\u201cWe have been working on lots of combinations in training. I\u2019m sure whoever steps in will give it their all be ready,\u201d Talagi said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Paul Alamoti Try<\/p>\n
He knows it\u2019s a bitter blow for the Panthers to lose their No.7 but he also feels his own injury-free pre-season has put him in good shape to lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA very different pre-season for me than last year,\u201d the 20-year-old said of missing four of the opening five rounds to a shoulder problem he carried throughout the off-season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it will set me up for a good start to the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a big year last year and I learnt a lot. It was truly special to be alongside boys like Nath that have been here and done that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Cleary sin binned for a high shot<\/p>\n
\u201cThe major thing to get out of it was how I prep for games. I\u2019m better at that now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Talagi turns 21 at the end of Round 2 is on course to reach his 50th NRL game milestone in 2026, currently sitting on 42 matches from just two seasons of NRL \u2013 20 with Parramatta (2024) and 22 with Penrith (2025).\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was hoping that entering his third NRL season the spotlight might dim a little on him but he\u2019s cognisant of the fact he will still attract attention, especially in Cleary\u2019s absence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess it\u2019s something I\u2019m still learning to deal with. I guess it\u2019s part of the game these days,” he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look forward to taking it (expectation) on because I think it\u2019s only going to help me in my career.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He is definitely not shy of the big stage and partnered Wests Tigers captain Jarome Luai in Samoa\u2019s run to the Pacific Championships final against New Zealand last November.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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A match-winning double for Blaize Talagi<\/p>\n
Luai opposed him at No.6 in Wests Tigers\u2019 26-12 win on Friday night at Leichhardt Oval.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s someone I played with before in internationals and he was in my spot here at Panthers before,\u201d Talagi said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“So it was good to face a quality player like him in trials to get a good hit-out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was nervous before the game but I think there are some good things ahead of us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Panthers will need to be on song facing the reigning premiers first-up, with a 16-14 loss in last year’s epic preliminary final still fresh in their minds.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing back to Brisbane, same stadium, same team \u2026 it ended up being our last game last year so we\u2019re looking at getting one back,\u201d Talagi said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a full season\u00a0with Penrith topped off by his first NRL finals campaign\u00a0Blaize Talagi feels he has the\u00a0know-how\u00a0to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-495667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}