{"id":591900,"date":"2026-04-07T19:57:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T19:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/591900\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T19:57:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T19:57:16","slug":"blaize-talagi-admits-sympathy-for-lachlan-galvin-ahead-of-panthers-vs-bulldogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/591900\/","title":{"rendered":"Blaize Talagi admits sympathy for Lachlan Galvin ahead of Panthers vs Bulldogs"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few years ago, Blaize Talagi<\/a> and Lachlan Galvin<\/a> were running out together playing for Westfields Sports High School as two of the brightest rising stars in the game.<\/p>\n

Now, the two young guns will face off as rivals when the Bulldogs<\/a> search for a crucial win when they host the Panthers<\/a> in a blockbuster round six clash.<\/p>\n

Talagi started his NRL career at the Eels before making the move to Penrith last year, while Galvin’s history in first grade is far more documented, walking out on the Wests Tigers mid-way through the 2025 season and joining Canterbury<\/a>.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Flanagan explains son’s return for must-win Dragons clash<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Munster admits ‘blessing’ despite 50-point ‘doom and gloom’<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Moses slapped with warning after running referee battle<\/a><\/p>\n

Since his move to Belmore last year, the 20-year-old has copped an enormous amount of scrutiny, while Talagi has largely escaped the limelight and pressure.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Blaize Talagi celebrates with Panthers teammates.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Speaking to media on Tuesday, the talented young Panthers five-eighth admitted he did have some sympathy for his ex-schoolboy teammate.<\/p>\n

“Yeah, I definitely do [feel for him],” Talagi said.<\/p>\n

“It’s not easy, he’s only young and you don’t want anyone to go through that. You’re learning on the job and to have a lot of pressure on you, it’s not something that is easy.<\/p>\n

“Galvin’s a good person and he will definitely be better for it.”<\/p>\n

Watch the 2026 NRL season live and free on Nine and 9Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Asked if the pair remain in contact, Talagi said “not really” but he admitted it was special to see how far both of them had come in a short space of time.<\/p>\n

“We were always both young, talented footy players,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s good to see how far we’ve come, it’s pretty cool. There’s always mutual respect.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Blaize Talagi speaks about Lachlan Galvin.\u00a0Nine\/Getty<\/p>\n

After a slow start to life at the foot of the Mountains last year, Talagi hit his straps during Penrith’s late-season run and has been on fire to start the 2026 campaign.<\/p>\n

The classy Samoan international believes his growth on and off the field is paying off.<\/p>\n

“I think I’ve definitely come a long way … I think it’s also just sort of me growing up and maturing as a person in general,” Talagi said.<\/p>\n

Canterbury will square off against the Panthers at Accor Stadium on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A few years ago, Blaize Talagi and Lachlan Galvin were running out together playing for Westfields Sports High…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-591900","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591900","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=591900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}