That isn’t a school bell, it’s the full-time siren at Accor Stadium—and when it sounds, only one of the NRL’s most talked about young guns will be left standing.
As the Bulldogs and Panthers lock horns in a sudden death semi final on Sunday afternoon, spare a thought for the two 20-year-olds in the number six jerseys.
Blaize Talagi and Lachlan Galvin face the biggest match of their fledgling NRL careers—and the former Westfields Sports High School teammates know only one will move on to a preliminary final against the Broncos.
Under coach Troy Wedden, the pair guided Westfields to the semi finals of the Peter Mulholland Cup in 2022 before Galvin went even better in 2023, winning the prestigious schoolboy competition in his final year at high school.
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Talagi gained Australian Schoolboys selection in 2022, an epic vintage that also included Isaiya Katoa, Keano Kinni and Jesse McLean.
Galvin received the same honour a year later, selected in the Australian Schoolboys 2023 side at five-eighth.
The similarities don’t end there either.
Both players were picked up by Parramatta in their teens, with Talagi progressing all the way to the Eels’ first grade squad in 2024.
Galvin played two seasons in Harold Matthews Cup before linking with the Tigers.
While Talagi’s 2025 season has progressively blossomed under Ivan Cleary during his first year with the Panthers, Galvin’s has been dogged by controversy since his much-hyped move to Canterbury in May.
Galvin gets another, and possibly final, chance to prove the doubters wrong on Sunday afternoon—with Talagi standing directly opposite, hoping to stop him.
This is no classroom.