Even from the other side of the planet, Brad Arthur has made a point of keeping a close eye on a special youngster to whom he handed an NRL debut last year.
Blaize Talagi has quickly become the permanent owner of Jarome Luai’s old No.6 jersey at Penrith, and Arthur – the former Eels coach now living in England, where he is masterminding Leeds’ charge up the Super League ladder – does not mind missing sleep to watch the 20-year-old in action.
Blaize Talagi scored a try for the Eels on debut, running over Manly’s Tom Trbojevic.
Talagi made his debut in the centres under Arthur at Parramatta in round three last year. Eels fans will remember him bumping off Manly’s Tom Trbojevic to score a try, then returning to the other end of CommBank Stadium to celebrate with his family.
In an ideal world, Talagi would have re-signed with Parramatta, succeeded Clint Gutherson at fullback and formed part of a lethal spine with Mitchell Moses and Dylan Brown.
But Gutherson decided to join St George Illawarra and Brown signed a $13 million, lifetime deal with Newcastle. Talagi? Well, there was no way the Eels were going to convince him to take up a lucrative three-year extension once he heard the pitch from Panthers coach Ivan Cleary.
St George Illawarra also had a nibble, but the premiers got their man.
Talagi and Penrith take on Parramatta on Sunday afternoon – and at some stage during the game, the blue and gold support will likely have cause to curse their club for letting another one get away.
Arthur knew the young Talagi was tough enough to play against men. He had followed him closely as a junior coming through the representative grades with his son, Matthew.
“Blaize was a good kid; he was always in the same age group as Matthew. They’d play against each other at club level, together in the same rep teams – but Blaize was the one who always made a difference to his team,” Arthur recalls.
“I’d watch Blaize as much as my own kids. He always had that level of class, especially physically.
We were down on troops last year when his opportunity to make his NRL debut came along. He was definitely physically ready, but in terms of his footy smarts and education, he had a bit of work to do. But he was only going to learn that by getting out on the field and playing.
“I still watch Blaize play now. He’s getting better, and he’s got a good educating half there in Nathan [Cleary]. Blaize’s best footy is still a long way down the track – but his ceiling is pretty high.
“He’s tough, humble, from a great family – he’s the kind of player every club would love to have.”
As five of his Penrith teammates were preparing for Origin III on Wednesday, Talagi sat down with this masthead outside the Panthers Academy to shed a little light on his upbringing, and the meeting with Cleary that sealed the deal on his move west.
He grew up in Georges Fair, a newish suburb in south-west Sydney near Moorebank. Dad Byron is Samoan and grew up playing league before getting kicked out of the game, whereupon he took up rugby. Talagi jnr is unsure exactly why his father was banned from the 13-man code, but points out the father of Eels playmaker Joash Papalii, Pele, was his dad’s rugby coach.
Younger brother Ryda and sister Hayloh are both talented league players who are still signed with the Eels.
Talagi played in an all-star Westfields Sports High team that featured Canterbury’s Lachie Galvin, new Eel Tallyn Da Silva and Wests Tigers playmaker Latu Fainu.
A talented No.10 and No.15 in rugby with West Harbour as a teenager, The King’s School offered Talagi a scholarship in the hope he would quit Westfields and league. They were never in the hunt.
Talagi’s talents are not limited to the rugby league field – he has a wonderful singing voice, too. His Panthers teammates love it any time he breaks into a Bruno Mars song. And his girlfriend, Ashley Triana, is a rising tennis star.
Forever grateful to Arthur for giving him his start in first grade, Talagi was desperate to stay at Parramatta. He met with Cleary and Panthers football manager Shane Elford at Cleary’s house last winter out of politeness more than a genuine desire to switch clubs.
“A few stories got out at the time about how my brother, Ryda, had been spotted leaving Ivan’s house, and I thought to myself, people must think I’m massive, because Ryda is heaps bigger than me,” Talagi says.
“There were a couple of clubs interested in me at the time, but I only met with the Dragons and Penrith.
“I remember going to Ivan’s house, which was on the river, and speaking to him and ‘Spud’ [Elford] in the backyard, and Ivan asking me about what I thought of my game, what my favourite position was, and while they’d love me to come to the club, there were no promises about positions.
“I never wanted to leave Parra, but that changed after talking with Ivan. I changed my mind so many times. In the end, I felt like I’d become a better player and better person by moving to Penrith. There have certainly been no regrets.”
One of the first things Penrith told Talagi was that if he did end up in the halves, they were not expecting him to replace four-time premiership winner Luai.
“The club taught me to only focus on myself, not the outside talk, and that helped a lot early,” he says.
The departure of Luai and the arrival of the much quieter Talagi has presented new challenges for some of the Panthers players, including hooker Mitch Kenny.
Kenny said he found himself automatically passing the ball to Cleary, and almost avoiding Talagi, because of the yawning gap in experience.
“It’s been a learning curve for me; it’s so easy when you play alongside a guy like Nath to want to put the ball in his hands all the time,” Kenny says.
“But Blaize is here for a reason, and I’ve got to trust him to do his job. Each week he plays he gets better at that.
“It’s a balancing act with him knowing when to call the ball off Nath, and me knowing when to give him the ball, and not just leaning on the best player in the competition. Blaize isn’t Romy, he’s Blaize, and we just want him to be the best version of Blaize.”
Panthers legend Greg Alexander, one of the club’s greatest playmakers, said Talagi’s past six weeks of football had given fans a glimpse of what’s possible.
“He will hit a hole where there isn’t much space,” Alexander said. “He’s a very good runner of the footy – he’s got a great ability to beat a defender with speed and footwork.
“His passing game and peripheral vision will develop the more he plays at five-eighth, and the more he realises what’s going on around him.
“When Jarome left, naturally you think, how do you fill that hole? Blaize is a different player to Jarome, but he’s certainly making his own mark.”
After a sloppy start, and having their season written off more than once, the Panthers are back. Their win over the Bulldogs before the bye showed there might just be a fifth straight title in them yet.
There may still be more episodes in the Penrith dynasty story. Tune in on Sunday to find out what happens next. Talagi’s old coach will be.
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