The NRL’s most polarising player, Jarome Luai, is about to make the biggest decision of his decorated career and it will have ripple effects across the competition.
Panthers superstar Luai has vowed to make a call on his future before returning to pre-season training next week, which means D-Day is fast approaching.
Luai is weighing up whether to leave almost $2 million on the table and keep chasing titles with one of the all-time great teams, or collect a serious payday.
Watch sport this summer live with no ad breaks in play on Kayo Sports. Join Kayo now and start streaming instantly >
Penrith have won the past three premierships and they’re favourites to contest what would be an NRL-era record fifth straight grand final next year.
But their salary cap bursting at the seams and the premiers haven’t been able to offer Luai anywhere near their rivals in both cash and duration.
Penrith coach Ivan Cleary wants to keep his No. 6 and sensationally warned rival clubs they’d be taking a “risk” signing him as their chief playmaker.
Luai is signed at the Panthers next year and as things stand he’ll fulfil that contract, but an immediate swap deal could also be on the cards.
The 26-year-old has won three premierships, but things rarely work out for players who trade the top of the table with the bottom for cash.
Here foxsports.com.au looks at all the factors Luai must consider before making his decision.
Madge pleas for buy in at first presser | 15:56
THE MONEY ON OFFER
The Panthers have tabled Luai a two-year extension worth $850,000 per season in a deal that would keep him at the club until the end of 2026.
Benji Marshall’s Wests Tigers on the other hand are willing to pay Luai at least $1.1 million for four years.
Luai’s management has indicated that it’ll take $1.2 million to move their client away from the foot of the mountains – and the playmaker will probably get it.
That’s due to the lack of star halves on the market and the fact the Tigers have to pay overs because they’ve collected the past two wooden spoons.
If the Tigers meet his demand for $1.2 million per season, then over the course four years he’d be leaving at least $1.4 million on the table to stay at Penrith as their offer for beyond 2026 could dip below $850,000.
Even when factoring in the $90,000 per year Luai wouldn’t earn if he didn’t play Origin (due to his club’s struggles) it would be a gobsmacking amount of money to reject.
But rugby league legend Peter Sterling this week warned Luai against making a decision based on money.
Sterling was in the same position as Luai 40 years ago when he was offered big money to leave Parramatta after they’d won three straight premierships.
MORE NRL NEWS
JIMMY BRINGS: Tigers’ trump cards in $1m race for Warriors beast; Blues huge coup
BLUES BURNING Q’S: Madge’s ominous selection warning as axe looms over stars
‘BIG ON FORM’: Madge’s selection hint as NSW coach reveals ‘key’ to unlock Blues
MANLY SOP: Turbo truth that can’t be denied; biggest question after Brooks signing
Ponga ready to recreate Dally M form | 01:05
“I know back in my time at Parramatta, there were opportunities to go elsewhere but you have to weigh up a lot of things, especially the fact that you’re at a club that’s successful,” Sterling told 9News.
“(Are you) pretty happy with where you are living and the way things are going? Do you disrupt that while not necessarily knowing whether you are going to enjoy where you’re headed?
“If you go for the money, you’re going for the wrong reason — that’s first and foremost.
“Obviously it’s a huge consideration but there are a lot of other ones (too).
“He’ll end up making the right decision and it’ll be the choice that his gut and his heart tells him is the best way to go.”
WITH GREAT MONEY COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY
If Luai takes the big money on offer at the Tigers then he’ll become the main man at an NRL club for the first time in his career.
Luai has forged a hugely successful halves partnership with Nathan Cleary, which started as uber-talented teenagers in junior rep teams.
They’ve tasted huge success at every level, playing in the past four grand finals together, winning the 2021 State of Origin series as NSW teammates, and even squaring off in the 2022 World Cup final.
But Luai has rarely been the central playmaker and coach Cleary questioned whether the Samoan international is ready for that challenge.
“Is he ready for that? That’s a question mark I would think,” Cleary said.
“Can he do it? I’m sure he could do it. Has he done it? He hasn’t really. In this team he has his role to play. That’s a risk everyone would have to take.”
Cleary emphasised his five-eighth “belongs” at the Panthers but the coach did admit the money on the table will be difficult to turn down.
“Everyone is always looking for high-quality halves and he’s definitely one of those,” Cleary said.
“But he knows where we’re at… we have made it pretty clear what we can afford, but there’s always other things you can maybe do (to make him stay).
“We want to make it really clear we want him to stay. I’m pretty sure he wants to say that as well.
“But money talks, so I guess we will see.”
Under the new contracting model set out in the collective bargaining agreement, the Panthers will have ten days to convince Luai to stay at the club should he accept any offer.
PENTHOUSE TO THE S***HOUSE
Rugby league is littered with star players taking big-money offers from struggling clubs and their career’s nosediving.
Braith Anasta left the Roosters to join the Tigers ahead of the 2013 season and that year his new club finished 15th while his old club won the premiership.
Matt Burton is a more recent example, the young gun was named in the 2021 Dally M Team of the Year before winning a premiership with the Panthers a few days later.
Burton then joined the Bulldogs on an improved deal and while maintaining enough form in 2022 to make his Blues and Kangaroos debuts, the playmaker struggled in 2023 and lost both his rep jerseys.
Luai, however, has already enjoyed a Hall of Fame career and while losing most weeks isn’t much fun, neither is being significantly underpaid.
He might end up playing for a proverbial outhouse club, but he’ll go home to a penthouse.
Bulldogs land Sharks utility Tracey | 00:26
IS THE SWAP DEAL REAL?
There were stunning reports this week of a potential swap deal that could see Luai join the Tigers immediately.
Penrith powerbrokers are willing to allow their gun five-eighth to depart immediately in exchange for two players, according to WWOS.
Former representative prop David Klemmer and young gun half Lachlan Galvin were the two players reportedly pitched in the two-for-one deal.
But Panthers great Greg Alexander blasted the report as a “completely made up” story by controversial player agent Isaac Moses.
Alexander believes Moses, who manages both Klemmer and Galvin, may have concocted the story.
“Isaac Moses, the manager of Lachlan Galvin and David Klemmer, maybe he was listening (to the show), and he came up with this idea,” Alexander said on SEN.
“Apparently it was a proposal by the Panthers to make it happen, that was the story.
“It was completely made up. It’s just a made-up story.”
When asked if the Panthers would be interested in signing Klemmer, Alexander was also steadfast: “Not really, no. Not to swap Jarome Luai for a front-rower”.
The Panthers have made three signings ahead of the 2024 season, with Daine Laurie, Brad Schneider and Paul Alamoti arriving at the foot of the mountain.
But they’ve lost gun prop Spencer Leniu and superstar centre Stephen Crichton to the Roosters and Bulldogs respectively.
Discussion about this post