It’s hard to believe that Moses Leota is playing his 10th season in first grade.
It feels like just yesterday that the St Marys product, who hails from Auckland, New Zealand, was making his debut on a cloudy winter’s day against the Manly Sea Eagles.
Now, with more than 175 NRL games and four premierships under his belt, the 29-year-old is Penrith’s main forward leader following the departure of his long-time teammate and good friend James Fisher-Harris.
Speaking with the Weekender on Tuesday afternoon, Leota said it was a little hard at first seeing someone else fill Fisher-Harris’ vacant locker.
“Ice (Isaiah Papali’i) took over his locker,” Leota revealed.
“It’s good now, but when he (Fisher-Harris) first left, it was a bit different, but it’s normal now. I actually caught up with him in Vegas on our last night there and we had a good time.”
With Fisher-Harris enjoying his new life over in New Zealand as the face of the Warriors, the Panthers had to fill more than his vacant locker this season.
The person tasked with taking over his coveted number 10 jumper was none other than Kangaroos forward Lindsay Smith.
The 25-year-old former cricketer has enjoyed a solid start to the year alongside Leota in the Penrith starting pack.
“He’s started on fire this year,” Leota glowingly said of Smith.
“He’s been going well, playing long minutes and he’s a really talented prop.
“He knows how to do his job very well. He’s talented and skilful.”
Another young star Leota wanted to heap praise on this week was that of Blaize Talagi, who made his club debut in Penrith’s narrow loss to the Storm last Thursday night.
Leota said he was particularly impressed with the “resilience and character” showed by the 20-year-old and his fellow half Jack Cole.
“It was tough losing Nathan [Cleary] early, but I felt like a lot of the young boys stepped up and we almost came away with the win,” he said.
“Blaize’s confidence is super high. He’s a ball of energy. He showed a lot of character last week and I was impressed with his defence. He had big guys coming at him and he led the line speed and took it head on – that’s what I liked about him!”
Penrith will aim to avoid three losses in a row when they travel to Accor Stadium to battle the South Sydney Rabbitohs on Thursday.
The Bunnies have had a mixed start to the year, but incredibly sit higher on the ladder than their opponents heading into tonight’s clash.
Leota said defence has been a big priority at Panthers training this week.
“I think we just need to nail down on our details,” he said.
“We know, as a team, defence wins games and that’s what we are trying to do. Hopefully we can fix it this week. We’ll soon find out.”
Nathan Taylor
Nathan Taylor is the Weekender's Deputy Editor and Senior Sports Writer. He also compiles the weekly Chatter on the Box TV column. Nathan is an award-winning journalist, who has worked at the Weekender for a decade.