Wests Tigers official podcast Behind The Roar is shining a light on some of the club’s younger players over summer, as preparations continue ahead of the 2024 NRL season.
BTR is available on Apple, Spotify and YouTube.
The pre-season series includes five players who are on NRL Development contracts and five who are part of the club’s top-30 roster. Six are yet to make their NRL debut, and all but one has played in Wests Tigers pathways teams.
This week we chat to teenage hooker, Tallyn Da Silva who is preparing for his first full season of NRL after making his first-grade debut in 2023.
It was a meteoric rise for the Campbelltown junior who went from playing park footy with his father to playing NRL with Wests Tigers in the space of 12 months.
Like many others in the current pre-season squad, Da Silva was a member of Wests premiership-winning Harold Matthews team in 2022.
He then moved swiftly though the ranks playing SG Ball, Jersey Flegg and NSW Cup, before running out against Melbourne Storm at Campbelltown Sports Stadium in Round 16 last season.
“It was like a dream, and something I did not think would happen for another few years,” he said.
That his first-grade debut would happen at Campbelltown in Wests Tigers Junior League Appreciation Round, only added to the occasion.
With five NRL games under his belt the East Campbelltown Eagles junior is now part of Wests Tigers top-30 roster and throwing himself into pre-season training.
He says he has much to achieve before the new season rolls around.
“I’ve got a lot of things to work on both physically and mentally,” he added.
On the physical side I’d like to put on a few kilos, get a lot stronger and get a lot faster.
Tallyn Da Silva
“I’ve spoken to Benji and Robbie and size isn’t an issue, but I certainly do want to increase my strength over the pre-season.
“If I’m going to be in the middle, I want to be an 80-minute player, so a little gain in size will help.”
Tallyn also talks about the wealth of dummy half experience at the club and how much he’s learning off the likes of Api Koroisau and Robbie Farah.
Roughly ten minutes in duration, each bitesize episode of the BTR summer series will be a light-hearted chat about footy, family, pre-season, and beyond.
