When asked if the Panthers will permit Jarome Luai to join the Tigers a year early, the playmaker’s CEO Brian Fletcher responded emphatically, “no.” There have been rumors that Luai is becoming dissatisfied with his present team.
Luai was given permission to miss this week’s Panthers preseason practice due to rumors that he had inked a six-figure agreement with the Tigers beginning in 2025, which would span five years.
In an interview with Fox Sports’ Cody Kaye on Tuesday morning, Fletcher laughed at predictions that Luai would be anywhere other than Penrith in 2024.
According to Kaye, who spoke with Fox Sports News, “Fletcher stated that there is no way we are letting Jarome Luai off his contract in 2024 to play for a rival club” and that “Jarome wants to be at the Panthers for the final year of his contract.”
Rugby league is a strange sport, as we all know, and this is not the first time a team has refused to release a player only for the player to later be freed.
“As far as the Panthers are concerned, Luai is not moving anywhere at this time.”
Luai’s arrival in Concord a season earlier would have been ideal for the Tigers, who are trying to end a two-year losing record under new coach Benji Marshall.
Luai hasn’t been spotted at Panthers preseason practices since telling teammates he intends to sign with the Tigers and depart the organisation at the end of 2024.
Kaye asked the esteemed rugby league administrator Shane Richardson, the new CEO of the Tigers, whether the team is eager to have Luai starting in 2024.
“You have to imagine that the Wests Tigers are doing everything in their power to try and get him (Luai) for the start of Round 1 next year, given this massive offer,” Kaye remarked.
“I asked Richardson directly, ‘Would you like to have Jarome for the 2024 season opener?’ He said, ‘No comment.'” Interpret that anyway you see fit. It doesn’t refute anything, but it does raise an ambiguity.
“If the Panthers choose to allow him to depart a year early, that is the only way they can accomplish that.”
Luai’s leave was reluctantly approved by the Panthers, according to the Daily Telegraph.
SMH journalist Michael Chammas, however, said in a tweet that Luai had not responded to the club and had instead had someone else inform them he “wasn’t coming to work because he was angry with them.”
