Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.<\/p>\n
Even at $1.2 million a season, Jarome Luai doesn\u2019t need to be Nathan Cleary in the Wests Tigers No.7 jersey. Not least because he will have Api Koroisau right alongside him at No.9.<\/p>\n
Former Blues coach Brad Fittler knows Luai better than most, having handed him his Origin debut and watched the Panthers pivot rise whenever he was riled.<\/p>\n
Penrith coach Ivan Cleary seemed to have done just that when he said rival clubs would be taking a risk on Luai as a seven-figure, chief playmaker \u2013 a comment duly met with the famous \u201cknow your worth\u201d Instagram post from Luai.<\/p>\n
Cleary only said what plenty of observers have uttered before and since. But with Benji Marshall pitching to make Luai his No.7 and main man on an eye-watering $6 million, five-year deal, Fittler sees plenty of reason for it to work.<\/p>\n
\u201dI think [Luai] thrives on people suggesting he can\u2019t do something,\u201d Fittler told this masthead. \u201cI\u2019d suggest he\u2019ll find a way to do it. He puts up with a lot, Jarome, and he seems to have that ability to use it to push himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd with Nathan Cleary, he obviously brings a lot of the traditional halfback play while Daly Cherry-Evans, Jahrome Hughes, Sam Walker, they bring a different [style], don\u2019t they?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Brad Fittler can see a first-class halfback in Jarome Luai.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou do have to tick certain game management boxes but as long as your playmaking spine, between the three of you, has them covered, there\u2019s no reason why [Luai] couldn\u2019t be a halfback.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at Api in particular, so much of their game is played off him, and he can do what it might take other teams two players to do, that freeing-the-ruck-up side of things. Api can do that pretty much on his own.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s about having a group or a spine of players to get those basics right more than just one player.\u201d<\/p>\n Luai himself told this masthead in May that he \u201crelished\u201d his role as Samoa\u2019s chief playmaker at last year\u2019s World Cup, steering the island nation to a final opposite Cleary\u2019s Kangaroos.<\/p>\n While the Bulldogs and former Panthers assistant coach Cameron Ciraldo remain an option given no contract has been signed, the Tigers are the firm front-runners to land Luai from the end of 2024.<\/p>\n A long-term playmaking spine of Jahream Bula (signed until the end of 2027), Luai, Koroisau (2026) and one of Latu Fainu, Jayden Sullivan or Adam Doueihi holds tremendous potential, to say the least.<\/p>\n As Luai, 26, enters his playmaking prime, Marshall offers as good a sounding board as any coach could on either balancing or transitioning between off-the-cuff play and game management.<\/p>\n \u201cBenji did it himself, didn\u2019t he?\u201d Fittler said. \u201cBenji wasn\u2019t a traditional halfback, but he ended up playing halfback his way.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of Benji\u2019s best footy was at the end [of his career] and he was playing a completely different role. He\u2019s a great example of the possibilities here. And again, Jarome\u2019s just never had that responsibility. So I think there\u2019s a lot of just assuming he can\u2019t do it, just because he\u2019s never had to.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd Jarome does have a really nice [long] kick on him. Maybe not as far as Nathan Cleary. Traditionally, that kicking game is the halfback\u2019s job, and I\u2019m sure [Luai] could do it. He\u2019s had arguably the best teacher right there too by playing next to [Cleary], one of the best at it\u201d.<\/p>\nMost Viewed in Sport<\/h2>\n
From our partners<\/h3>\n