Jarome Luai has proven his doubters wrong in 2024, enjoying a career year to mark himself as a halfback genuinely capable of single-handedly leading a team.
Luai has stepped out of the shadow of Nathan Cleary at the Panthers — something which many believed he couldn’t do, until he took his game to a new level this year.
A move away from Penrith to Wests Tigers was set to be the true test over whether Luai could be a club’s main man, but with injuries to Cleary, the 27-year-old has shown he’s no sidekick well ahead of time.
Now, speaking to Fox League’s Jake Duke in an episode of Face To Face that will air on Monday night, Luai has opened up on defying the critics, and his dislike for previously being labelled Robin to Cleary’s Batman.
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“I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. It made me feel underappreciated,” he said.
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“I think that was natural and me being human.”
Prior to 2024, the most common criticism levelled towards the Samoan international was that he wasn’t capable of winning games without Cleary.
That script flipped this season when Penrith’s inspirational halfback suffered a hamstring injury that sidelined him from Round 10 to Round 20, during which time Luai was handed the reins at Penrith.
During that window, Luai featured six times at halfback for the Panthers, winning five and losing once, to certify himself as capable of excelling without his partner of crime, something he will have to do from next season at the Wests Tigers.
Luai revealed part of his motivation to trade Penrith for Concord from 2025 was to prove a point to the rugby league community.
“At the end of the day it is a bit of a motivator for me, to jump out of that category and be my own man,” he said.
Despite showing he’s capable of putting a side on his back and playing a pivotal role in impressive team wins as a No.7, Luai admitted his desire to take on the challenges that come with being a team’s full-time main man on a more consistent basis.
“(I) just really want to test myself.”
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Having won three premierships in a row, and chasing another this year, many initially scratched their heads when Luai signed his five-year deal with Benji Marshall’s side, who’ve just won their third consecutive wooden spoon.
Luai insisted his move wasn’t motivated by finances, despite what many argued at the time, and that his legacy was a big reason for joining the Tigers.
“I love challenges,” he said, before adding that if he stayed at Penrith he feared he may end up looking back on his career through a regretful lens.
“I’m a guy who doesn’t want to finish knowing that I could have done something (else).”
“I’m going to a place that needs a bit of life. I’m just going to go there and do what I’ve always done and have fun and hopefully win some games.”
Naturally comparisons have been made between Luai’s Tigers move and former teammate Stephen Crichton’s switch to join the Bulldogs, with the 27-year-old revealing he takes a lot of inspiration from Crichton’s role in Canterbury’s 2024 revival.
“Definitely,” he said when asked if he hopes to have a similar impact at Concord.
With as little as two games remaining in his 128-game Panthers career, Luai conceded it was impossible for him to ignore the emotion of bringing his time at the club that’s given him so much to an end.
However, with Penrith well in the fight for a fourth-straight premiership, the NSW Blue star insisted: “I don’t really want to count down the games, I just want to make them count.”
You can catch Jarome Luai’s full Face to Face interview tonight at 7:30 pm AEST on Fox League
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