There’s major rumblings the Wests Tigers are gearing up to have a crack at signing Panthers five-eighth Jarome Luai as the club continues to search for a circuit breaker to get off the bottom of the NRL ladder.
The Tigers won’t be the only club interested in making a pitch to the off contract Panthers five-eighth but they’ll certainly be able to blow most rivals out of the water when it comes to money.
The Wests Tigers will have plenty of salary cap wiggle room in 2025 and you get the feeling Luai’s flamboyant, off-the-cuff style of attack could be a perfect fit for coach Benji Marshall.
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Sure the Tigers have been burned previously when it comes to targeting big-name, off contract halves but you’ve got to admire the latest coaching staff’s approach towards having a swing at one of the biggest names on the open market.
The Panthers have told Luai they will be able to make him an offer of around the $850,000-a-season mark for 2025 and beyond but there’s no question other NRL clubs in need of halves will be prepared to pay well in excess of $1 million per season.
Another thing working in the Wests Tigers favour will be captain Api Korisau’s close relationship with Luai having won two premierships together at Penrith.
Luai, 26, recently split with his agent and is now under new management.
The Bulldogs are another club monitoring the Luai contract situation and also have the advantage of coach Cameron Ciraldo and two of his great mates from Penrith Stephen Crichton and Viliame Kikau all being at Belmore now.
BULLDOGS’ BAND-AID SOLUTION NOT THE END
The Bulldogs have put a band-aid on the Raymond Faitala-Mariner contract stalemate with the backrower returning to training with the rest of the NRL side this week.
Despite being named club captain at the Bulldogs back in January what’s now abundantly clear is Faitala-Mariner is well and truly on the outer at Canterbury-Bankstown.
Which is a big turn of events from when the Bulldogs labelled him part of the heart and soul of the Belmore club only 10 months ago.
But it’s hard to see how RFM remains club captain of the Bulldogs if he’s still there by the time the new season rolls around.
The way we’ve heard it Faitala-Mariner was initially told he was not required to return to training.
The Bulldogs forward then asked for a couple of days to think about it before informing the club he still wanted to report to Belmore for pre-season.
Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo has no issue with Faitala-Mariner opting to return to training this week and he’ll train with the rest of the NRL side for the time being.
The development comes in the wake of Canterbury-Bankstown general manager of football Phil Gould being left fuming after a photograph of a meeting with the Bulldogs forward was leaked to the media last weekend.
The meeting inside The Dynasty Chinese restaurant at Canterbury Leagues club was meant to be top secret before a photographer turned up and it was splashed all over The Sunday Telegraph.
We get the feeling there’s still a lot more to play out with RFM as the pre-season unfolds.
One of the most popular personalities in rugby league Josh Addo-Carr also returned to Bulldogs training on Wednesday and remains committed to the club.
ROOSTERS CLOSING IN ON RUGBY POSTER BOY
The Sydney Roosters are in a strong position to land the signature of Rugby Australia poster boy Mark Nawaqanitawase in what would be another hammer blow for the rival code.
In the latest example of Rugby Australia bumbling from one disaster to the next the Roosters have made a strong pitch on why the rugby union flyer should join the Tricolours in 2025.
No formal offer has been tabled yet but there’s been a meeting with Sydney Roosters kingpin chairman Nick Politis and head coach Trent Robinson on Tuesday.
With Rugby Australia now under enormous pressure to justify Joseph Suaalii’s monster $5.2 million three-year deal the Roosters have seen an opportunity and been bullish about it.
The ridiculous element of it is Rugby Australia was only prepared to contract Nawaqintawase until the end of 2024 yet are already using the emerging star as the face of the advertising campaign for the British and Irish Lions Tour in 2025.
The NRL is currently assessing how to best offer all club 17 clubs salary cap relief if they poach rugby union players in the wake of the Rugby Australia-Suaalii situation.
Nawaqanitawase, 23, has a rugby league background having played junior football for the Concord Burwood Wolves and Leichhardt Wanderers.
The Wallabies rookie’s father, Sevuloni, also moved from Fiji to play for Balmain Tigers in 1991.
The Roosters have already signed outstanding English flyer Dominic Young and Super League speedster Lewis Murphy for 2024.
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TIME TO ‘END THE PASCOE FIASCO’?
Wests Tigers CEO Justin Pascoe is under increasing pressure to retain his position after the back-to-back wooden spoons as the all-encompassing independent review of the embattled club nears its conclusion.
Pascoe has presided over the Concord-based club being reduced to a laughing stock since joining the Wests Tigers at the end of 2016 with the review commissioned by the Holman Barnes group tipped to heap further pressure on the struggling CEO.
Surely the unmitigated disaster of Tim Sheens’ second coming as Wests Tigers head coach, and the eye-watering payout Sheens received, has to be close to the final straw.
Don’t blame Sheens – blame Pascoe for deciding to appoint him for two years as the club’s head coach.
It was a similar story with Michael Maguire who is a good man but was left badly burned by the Wests Tigers experience.
That cost the Tigers $800,000 to pay him out. Throw in the Sheens payout on top and it all adds up to a shocking way of doing business.
The Wests Tigers front office is in desperate need of a shake-up and it starts at the top.
As the Wests Tigers fans wrote at the end of last season on several banners it’s time to “End the Pascoe fiasco”.
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