“AM I EARLY?” says Mitchell Moses, bursting into one of the many nondescript multi-purpose rooms in the labyrinthine bowels of CommBank Stadium. The answer is yes, and our crew is rather taken aback by his sudden appearance – it’s as if he has materialised out of the walls like a fresco come to life. Moses’ cover partner, Blaize Talagi, was supposed to arrive first. But it doesn’t matter – we can prep Moses first.
The 31-year-old Parramatta Eels captain is wearing tracksuit pants, a puffer jacket and New Balance sneakers. It’s a casual get-up with two exceptions – his rose gold Rolex Day-Date, which you try not to notice but do, and the cloud of Rabanne Invictus Elixir that follows him wherever he goes. He’s still nursing the hamstring injury that kept him out of State of Origin game one, but he assures us he’ll be ready to go by game two. “Well, yeah, I should be,” he says. “I’ll get a game in before then and go from there.”
The Blues managed in his absence. Twenty-one-year-old Ethan Strange took Moses’ place at five eighth and scored a try in what will go down as one of the greatest comeback wins in State of Origin history. How did Moses feel watching his replacement succeed from the sidelines? “I was rapt,” he says. “I couldn’t care less about how it affects me. I don’t care who comes into the team. I just want to see New South Wales win.”
Blaize Talagi arrives shortly after, carrying evidence of the previous night’s work. Scratches run across his thighs and there are bruises beginning to darken beneath his skin. Eighteen hours earlier at this very ground, his first-placed Penrith Panthers defeated the second-placed New Zealand Warriors to cement their spot atop the NRL ladder. And in the absence of Nathan Cleary, who was rested after Origin, Talagi took on the role of orchestrator of the Panthers’ attack. It’s an opportunity he welcomes. “Yeah, I do, to be honest,” he says when asked if he likes playing a more pivotal role. “I feel like the whole club’s got that sort of next man up mentality.”
Talagi is softly spoken, reserved and a bit shy. He was raised to be thoughtful rather than loud, and it takes him a while to warm up to our crew. Moses, by contrast, is cracking jokes not long after introducing himself. He has long made peace with being the centre of attention. He asks if he’ll have to go shirtless during our shoot and is relieved when we say that he won’t. “I’d need a couple weeks to prepare,” he jokes. Talagi watches Moses working the room, and you sense he is filing it away somewhere.
It’s round 14 of the 2026 NRL season when Moses and Talagi are on set with Men’s Health. Moses is dragging himself to his milestone 250th game while his Parramatta Eels battle an injury plague from the outside of the top eight looking in. Talagi, on the other hand, has just crossed 50 games in his fledgling career, and his Penrith Panthers are sitting atop the ladder with 11 wins to just one loss.
The contrast between the pair could scarcely be starker. One is a 12-year veteran near the peak of his powers. The other is a star of tomorrow who is only just getting started. What they share is a mindset – and the fact that they both wear Rabanne Invictus Elixir, but that’s another matter. This is a pair of athletes who aren’t content with simply collecting a pay check. They want to be the best at what they do, and are committed to consistently getting better.
The truth is they need to be. If you’ve been paying any attention to the league this season, you’ll know that the game has changed. The modern NRL player is faster, stronger and fitter than ever before. Today, rugby league requires total devotion to peak performance and a commitment of both body and mind. Talagi and Moses have met that challenge head on and are exemplars of the modern NRL star, because the best players don’t just possess the ability to change a game, they can change with the game.
MITCHELL MOSES isn’t quite carrying a limp, but he’s still not at full strength on the day of his Men’s Health cover shoot due to a hamstring strain. As we make our way through the corridors of the stadium and onto the playing field for the cover shot, he’s telling Talagi about his recent experimentation with hyperbaric chambers to speed up his recovery. “I’m willing to try anything at this point,” he says.
Since 2023, Moses hasn’t played more than 12 games in a season for the Eels. And although he’s been selected by New South Wales for six consecutive years, he’s yet to play all three games in a series. In 2024 he fractured his foot and ruptured his bicep. In 2025 he injured his foot again and strained his calf. And his recent hamstring strain meant he had to watch State of Origin game one from the sidelines.
Injuries are becoming more frequent and more frustrating for Moses. “I hit 200 games pretty quickly, but since then I’ve been struggling to stay on the field,” he says. “I feel good, but I feel like my body’s just letting me down at times. But it is what it is. Injuries happen in footy and you can be unlucky.”
He is adamant, though, that the injuries are not a product of getting older. “I don’t think so, no,” he says. “A few of my injuries have just been unlucky.” Likewise, the injuries do not mean Moses is feeling any worse on a physical level than he was 10 years ago. “This is probably the best I’ve felt in a very long time,” he says.
This is the kind of thing athletes say, and often it is merely that – something that they say. But Moses speaks of his fitness with the particular flatness of a man reporting a fact rather than selling a narrative about himself, so I’m obliged to believe him.
When he does take to the field again for the Eels, it will be Moses’ 250th NRL game. Earlier in his career, he stood out for his speed, which far exceeded that of the average halfback. His enormous right boot also made him extremely valuable and capable of pinning teams back while getting his own side out of trouble after an ordinary set of six.
Taken on their own, those two qualities would have been enough for Moses to have a long, respectable career in the NRL. But his growth has taken him from being a good halfback to being an elite one. He’s added an immense football IQ, composure and the ability to organise a team to his repertoire. Now, he can run wider and more expansively than someone with less speed, while using his quick-thinking to dummy, pick up runners and ultimately split a defence open by finding space where there seemingly is none.
Those improvements didn’t happen by accident. While Moses was an Eels junior, he debuted with the Wests Tigers and spent his first three-and-a-half seasons with the club gaining the experience necessary to strengthen his game. Those were tough years for the Tigers, who didn’t make the finals in any of Moses’ seasons at the club. But as he explains, losses are learning opportunities. “It probably helped me, to be honest,” he says. “Starting off at the Tigers, I didn’t have much luck there. But that experience taught me how to handle those situations a bit better.”
It also taught him how to handle criticism. “It’s hard to block it [the criticism] out,” he says. “Just know that those people talking, they’re not in your shoes. They don’t live how you live. So you need to try to ignore them and focus on yourself.”
Moses grew up supporting the Eels, so when he signed with the club in 2017, it felt like a homecoming. “My old man was a mental Parra’ fan,” he says, “so to be able to come back here and play footy for the team I supported as a kid was really special.”
Moses was the missing piece the Eels had been searching for. They made the finals in five of his first six seasons at the club, culminating in a grand final appearance in 2022. As the years went by, Moses began to take on more leadership duties. He became the Eels’ captain in 2025, but even before then he was a leader among the squad. “He was a mentor to the whole playing group, really,” says Talagi. “He always made sure morale was high and pushed us to be our best.”
Being the captain means more than having a ‘C’ next to your name on the team list. It comes with added responsibilities, burdens and pressure. This is something Moses has learnt to accept. “I guess you’ve just got to accept the added extra pressure,” he says. “I feel like I’ve had that role my whole career. Being a halfback, you have to be a natural leader.”
The 2022 grand final loss still looms large in Moses’ memory. As a professional athlete, you are judged, above all, by wins and losses, and that’s as big a loss as there is. At this stage of his career, Moses is still without an NRL premiership, but it remains an all-consuming pursuit. “That’s the ultimate goal,” he says. “Doing it at Parramatta would be unreal.”
But unlike sport, life is not all about wins and losses. Becoming a father to two daughters (with a third on the way) has changed Moses’ perspective. “I think it has actually relaxed me a bit,” he says. “Coming home, it’s not all about footy. Sometimes I just need to take my mind off things and stop thinking about training or the next game. Having the kids, I can go home and clock off for a bit.”
At 31, the clock is ticking on Moses’ chances of winning a premiership, but it’s not something that keeps him up at night. As he says, he feels as good as he did a decade ago. “Ah, no,” he says, when asked if he’s given retirement much thought. “I’m still focused on winning footy games. I want to win a premiership before I go, so I’m not ready to set an end date yet.”
He has no doubt that the newfound pace and high-scoring nature of the game won’t leave him behind as he ages, either. Adaptability has defined his career. Like Talagi, Moses started his career at fullback before moving into the halves. His physical qualities were once his biggest strengths, now his mental attributes are just as lethal. Moses has plenty left in the tank and more than a few tricks left up his sleeve.
Mitchell Moses' lower body workout
Moses has learnt that the key to succeeding on the field working hard off it. In the today’s faster game, a rigorous workout routine isn’t optional, it’s a must. “The game’s that fast now that if you don’t look after yourself and put in the work off the field, you’re just going to be left behind,” he says. This is his go-to lower body workout for maximum gains.
Box squats, 4 sets of 6
Romanian dead lifts, 4 sets of 6
Leg extensions, 4 sets of 10
Standing calf raises, 4 sets of 15
Bulgarian split squats, 4 sets of 6
Mitchell Moses' secret weapon
Moses praises Rabanne Invictus Elixir’s versatility and 24-hour intensity. He wears it on game day, to dinner, on chill days at home. “You really can wear it anywhere,” he says. “I love how classy it is.”
BLAIZE TALAGI is in a great mood as we make our way onto the field at Western Sydney Stadium. Perhaps it was the win the night before, but my read on him is that he’s of a generally cheery disposition. He would be considered trim by NRL standards, but he has muscular arms which, once released from the constraints of his puffer jacket, coil and glisten in the winter sun. His quads, too, look like they were borrowed from someone wearing a yellow jersey at the Tour de France.
He’s officially listed at 90kg, but he tells me his max bench press is an impressive 120kg. “120 aye?” says Moses, with some incredulity, after hearing about Talagi’s PR. “Well, I can dumbbell press with 65kg in each hand, if we’re puffing our numbers up,” he jokes.
Talagi’s strength is real. It’s been hardened and sharpened for nearly all of his 21 years on this earth training to make it to the NRL. When he was growing up, if someone asked him what he wanted to be when he was older, he invariably said a footy player. He started playing in organised comps at five and was always the best player on the field throughout his junior career. By the time he was a teenager, he stopped wondering if he would make it to the NRL and started wondering when. “When I was in my late teens playing in SG Ball, I was just sort of waiting to get my chance,” he says.
It was around that same time that he first met Mitchell Moses. The two share an agent who, recognising something worth cultivating, set up a kick-around to give the rising star a chance to learn from the veteran. A few short years later, Talagi would be making his NRL debut for the Parramatta Eels alongside Moses.
Even for one of the most highly rated prospects in the sport, there were some teething issues when he first made the jump to first grade. “There’s two big differences between the NRL and the lower levels: the speed and the physicality,” Talagi says. “I feel like stepping up my work in the gym and also the diet aspect were the biggest changes for me.”
While he shined on an individual level, Talagi’s rookie season was a difficult one for the Eels. Just two years removed from a grand final appearance, the team was battered by injuries and spent most of the year without their star halfback, Moses, who played just eight games. They would ultimately finish 15th on the ladder, with wins in their last two games of the season lifting them one win clear of the wooden spoon.
It was a time of mixed emotions for Talagi, whose moments of individual brilliance weren’t enough to lift his team. He had to adjust to hearing criticism from fans on social media. “I remember there was a tough period at Parra’,” he says. “I think I learnt a lot of lessons during that time about all the social media stuff and to just stay away from it.”
Talagi’s first season with Parramatta would also be his last. He signed with the Penrith Panthers towards the end of the year. It was the obvious move and therefore, in the strange mathematics of professional sport, a controversial one. The Panthers were – are – the most dominant team of the NRL era, winning four consecutive premierships from 2021 to 2024 while remaining heavy favourites to win another this season. If a team like that wants your services, there aren’t many reasons why you’d say no. “There were a lot of different factors,” explains Talagi, “but it all revolved around what was best for me and my career. And Penrith being what Penrith is, it’s hard to turn down an opportunity to go there and enter their system.”
For what it’s worth, there are no hard feelings between Moses and Talagi over the latter’s decision to jump ship. “I think for the position that he was in in his football career, he did the right thing,” Moses says. “As a young half trying to find your way in first grade, you have to take your chances as they come. He went to a team where he could slot right in while still developing, and he gets to learn from one of the best halves in the game in Nathan Cleary.”
Talagi spent most of his time with the Eels at fullback. Upon joining the Panthers, he made the switch to five– eighth and again found success. He helped the Panthers overcome a slow start to the 2025 season to come within two points of making the grand final. Now the Panthers are firmly entrenched as favourites to win the 2026 NRL premiership.
The prospect of playing representative footy also looms for Talagi. He represented New South Wales at both the under-16 and under-18 levels, and wants to play for his state on rugby league’s biggest stage.“That’s probably a few years away still, but it’s something I’m building towards,” he says.
Sooner than that, Talagi will get a chance to shine on the international stage. He’s half Samoan on his father’s side and is the nation’s incumbent five eighth and goal kicker. With the 2026 Rugby League World Cup rapidly approaching, Talagi relishes any opportunity to represent his Samoan heritage. “Family is massive to me,” he says. “They’re so supportive of me and I definitely wouldn’t be where I am today without them. I’m glad I get to represent them when I put on that Samoan jersey.”
With all he’s already accomplished, it’s easy to forget that Talagi is still only 21 years old. Talagi himself says it’s crazy how far he’s come in such a short amount of time. “It’s only my third year, but I feel like I’ve come such a long way since I debuted,” he says. “My game’s developed a lot, but I still feel like I’ve got a lot of room to grow.” It almost seems unfair to the rest of the NRL.
LATE IN THE afternoon as our shoot winds down, Moses and Talagi are standing together on the CommBank Stadium turf in the fading sunlight. They do not, on the surface, have much in common. One is 31 and running out of time to accomplish his ultimate goal, the other is 21 and swimming in it.
What they share is harder to articulate than a profession or the same cologne. It is something closer to a mentality, a refusal to be satisfied by simply making it to the NRL and holding on to it for as long as possible. Moses has been at the top of his sport for a decade and is still trying to get better at it. Talagi is just beginning and already thinking about what he has to do next.
The NRL is changing. The players in it who succeed are the ones who adapt as a choice, not a concession. Blaize Talagi and Mitchell Moses are, in their different ways, those players. The proof is in what they’re still becoming.
Blaize Talagi's upper-body workout
The NRL is averaging more than 50 points per match for the first time in its history. The average margin of victory has ballooned to 18 points. And it is no longer uncommon for a team to score 30 points but lose a match. The impact on the players is clear. “It’s hard to explain, but basically everyone’s more tired and you need to be a lot more fit,” says Talagi. This is how Talagi torches his upper body to ensure he’s at the top of his game.
Barbell bench press, 3 sets of 6 at 100kg (one rep max is 120kg)
Dumbbell rows, 3 sets of 10
Overhead press, 3 sets of 10
Barbell curls, 3 sets of 10
Tricep extensions, 3 sets of 10
Blaize Talagi's winning ritual
As a hard-running rugby league player, Talagi’s choice of fragrance isn’t just something he sprays on after a sweaty gym session. It needs to be a cologne that instils confidence and inspires him to greater feats; an intangible yet significant performance tool that’s embedded in his daily routine. Enter Rabanne Invictus Elixir, a bold, long-lasting fragrance with up to 24-hour intensity, designed for game day and beyond. “It’s an everyday thing,” says Talagi. “It’s just part of my routine. It makes me feel confident, and I think I’ve found my fragrance.”
WORDS: CAYLE REID
PHOTOGRAPHY: STEVE BACCON
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: GRANT PEARCE
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR: REBECCA MOORE
FASHION ASSISTANT: KAILEE WALLER
GROOMING: MONIQUE JONES
VIDEO: SAHEL DUPRE-VIRTAMO
HEAD OF BRAND: BEN JHOTY
