After being dropped in favour of Jack Cogger, Talagi\u2019s defensive shortcomings have come under the microscope, with NRL pundits questioning whether he\u2019ll be able to reclaim his spot before the finals.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThis is a huge decision because he\u2019s been so good for the past couple of years but defensively I think only Ezra Mama as a five-eighth has missed more tackles than Blaize Talagi this season,\u201d CODE Sports reporter Brent Read said on NRL 360.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did a yarn earlier in the year on the blueprint to defeat Penrith and one of the ways to beat them was to attack that left-edge defence. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a real Achilles heel for them at times this season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blaize Talagi has been dropped.Source: News Sport Network<\/p>\n
While Read is confident that he will force his way back into Ivan Cleary\u2019s side, colleague Michael Carayannis warned that the Panthers may be reluctant to reintroduce a defensive weakness.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019ll be back in the side by finals. They\u2019ve just got to reinforce that side of the field,\u201d Read continued.<\/p>\n
To which Carayannis replied, \u201cI\u2019m not as certain as Ready is because when they won the four comps in a row they have no weaknesses, but when you throw Blaize in defensively it becomes a spot for attacking sides.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was their one weakness so if Jack Cogger who is a steady hand and a good defender, can do a job and they can win some games, I\u2019m not so sure we will see Blaize back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Talagi\u2019s omission has also fuelled speculation over his long-term future at the Penrith Panthers.<\/p>\n
This comes as he is one of several high-profile players who will hit the open market and be able to speak with rival teams from November 1.<\/p>\n
Are the Dragons now top 8 contenders? | 03:08<\/p>\n
Former NRL player and co-host Braith Anasta believes this could leave the playmaker vulnerable as the club prepares for another salary cap squeeze and prioritises re-signing its biggest stars first, such as Isaah Yeo, Liam Martin and Nathan Cleary.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is interesting considering they\u2019ve dropped him at the moment,\u201d Anasta said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe could be the fall guy\u2026and we know they can\u2019t keep everyone.<\/p>\n
With rival clubs consistently searching for their next long-term halves situation, Talagi could emerge as a highly sought-after option.<\/p>\n
One team that has already been floated around as a potential destination is the Parramatta Eels.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is a guy that clubs could have a lash at. Parramatta\u2019s an obvious one and they probably need a long-term six,\u201d Read continued.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blaize Talagi\u2019s future at the Penrith Panthers has been thrown into fresh doubt, with fears that the youngster…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":832183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-832182","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\/832182","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=832182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}