{"id":844549,"date":"2026-08-05T15:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T15:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/844549\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T15:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T15:32:12","slug":"panthers-facing-awkward-contract-dilemma-which-could-end-in-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/844549\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers facing awkward contract dilemma which could end in \u2018disaster\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

A \u201cdisaster\u201d could be looming at the Penrith Panthers as the club deals with a major salary cap squeeze which is affecting several superstars. <\/p>\n

Axed Panthers young gun Blaize Talagi could be one player forced out the door, but that\u2019ll depend on what the club\u2019s superstar halfback Nathan Cleary decides to do regarding his NRL future.<\/p>\n

Watch every game of every round of the NRL Premiership LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Talagi is one of a handful of Penrith players off contract at the end of next season, but given he was recently dropped from first grade in favour of Jack Cogger, questions around his future at the Panthers are understandably being asked.<\/p>\n

Talagi is a supremely talented playmaker and has a bright future in the NRL, but his defensive deficiencies were hard for coach Ivan Cleary to overlook.<\/p>\n

Given the Panthers want to re-sign Nathan Cleary, Isaah Yeo, Liam Martin, Moses Leota while already agreeing to deals with Mitch Kenny and Tom Jenkins, Talagi may be squeezed out.<\/p>\n

It led to NRL360 host Braith Anasta putting to the panel on Wednesday night\u2019s episode whether the Panthers should let Talagi walk to aim for a cheaper option to partner Cleary in the halves going forward.<\/p>\n

Cogger will likely command much less than Talagi does beyond 2027 and while not nearly as dynamic as Talagi, has proven in the past he works well with Cleary.<\/p>\n

\u201cCogger is under contract until 2028 which is another factor in this. For me, they\u2019ve got other priorities including Nathan Cleary, Liam Martin, Isaah Yeo and others,\u201d journalist Brent Read replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if Talagi gets to Nov 1, I think they\u2019ll (Penrith) struggle to compete (with rival clubs).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere would be teams keen I would imagine. I think of Parramatta. He\u2019s a former Eels junior and player \u2026 If you\u2019re the Eels, I\u2019d have a red-hot lash.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Whether the Panthers retain Talagi or let him walk will depend on what Cleary does.<\/p>\n

The superstar halfback has expressed an interest to test free agency. The PNG Chiefs will likely throw a tax-free King\u2019s ransom at Cleary if he makes it to November 1 unsigned. <\/p>\n

However, if the Panthers don\u2019t play these next couple of months right on the retention front, they could lose both Talagi and Cleary as Anasta noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other point is that if Nathan doesn\u2019t stay and they let go of Talagi, they\u2019re in some trouble. It could give us an indication where they\u2019re at with Nathan by what they do with Blaize,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would be a disaster,\u201d The Daily Telegraph\u2019s Michael Carayannis replied, who then revealed that Penrith are keen to lock up they\u2019re main targets before the finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll get an indication in the next two or three weeks. Then they\u2019ll lock it down and get all the contracts done they know they can get sorted and it won\u2019t drag on into the finals.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A \u201cdisaster\u201d could be looming at the Penrith Panthers as the club deals with a major salary cap…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":844550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-844549","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\/844549","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=844549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}