OFFICIAL Jarome Luai - #295

[Lukic]

Watched him do plenty on the field & be a big contributor to the achievements he's earned in his career. You know we weren't the only club chasing him & offering him those sorts of dollars so it's not just the Wests Tigers who valued him pretty highly & this was all before he filled in at halfback for Penrith last year & did a pretty good job at it too. By that metric is Nathan Cleary a failure because he's directly contributed to Origin losses too (yet to win a decider as the halfback actually)

The only other club seriously chasing him if I recall correctly was the Dogs, and they didn't come close to the number we did (their number was closer to Penrith and that's with Gus and Ciraldo who were intimately familiar with him from their time at Penrith).

And Cleary is a failure at origin level. No arguing that. But at least he's proven he's an all time great halfback and no.1 option at club level. Luai's proven he's a nice to have as your 3rd or 4th best spine player.

Also I put little stock in what Luai did filling in at 7 last year because Kenny and Yeo still organised the team in the middle and we're seeing Brad Schneider do just as good a job this year.

 

[WesternSuburbsBoy]

The only other club seriously chasing him if I recall correctly was the Dogs, and they didn't come close to the number we did (their number was closer to Penrith and that's with Gus and Ciraldo who were intimately familiar with him from their time at Penrith).

And Cleary is a failure at origin level. No arguing that. But at least he's proven he's an all time great halfback and no.1 option at club level. Luai's proven he's a nice to have as your 3rd or 4th best spine player.

Also I put little stock in what Luai did filling in at 7 last year because Kenny and Yeo still organised the team in the middle and we're seeing Brad Schneider do just as good a job this year.

Respectfully if this is what you think I'm not even gonna bother

 

[Jolls]

All you say is inarguable. My point is that at that salary and with that reputation he should deliver more. He IS the Nathan Cleary for the Tigers! He has the proven ability to run the ball and when he does that he has the opposition at sixes and sevens but to merely be given the ball on the 5th and then kick down the middle doesn't justify his value. We all know he is better than that.....what's going on??

My guess is that Jerome and Api would have a big influence in our game plan, so when it’s not working they have to be held just as accountable as what Benji is.
The only explanation for so much one out boring play is that it’s very Penrith and Melbourne like.
The problem is we don’t have the class and strike players or a good enough defence to afford playing this boring style of play and wait for our class players to come up with the special plays.
Let’s try getting more strike in our 17, play a lot more expansive and try winning games 36-30.

Or lets not emulate other teams. Analyse how the opposition plays and focus on executing a plan that pits our strengths agaisnt their weknesses. If that isn't going to plan on the day, adapt and overcome.

Systems and focussing on what you can control are a great start and brief well at the presser - but it doesn't win games.

The best of military plans, developed by professional planners, rarely survive the first shot. Once that is fired good militaries act on intent. Not on how they were told to do the job. If the intent is known - how the [This word has been automatically removed] you get it done doesn't matter.

We seem to be so focussed the system and the execution that we forget what the purpose is. Focussing on what you can control is bullshit. Control what you can, identify what it needed to achieve your goal and go for the jugular. If that means throwing the game plan in the bin after 15 minutes - that is probably where it belongs.

 

[clontarfkid]

it's a bit optimistic to think that perth will come in and have a better roster than the tigers.
they have exactly the same salary cap... so the money still needs to be split the same as every other NRL team. there are no cap exemptions.
i have big concerns for them as a club in the early years..

Problem with Perth is they dont have a junior base to leverage,unlike Dolphins.So everyone has to be bought from outside except for the odd Western Force discard
Same applied to Storm...but theres only one Craig Bellamy,and even he has a base in Qld to build from

 

[Lukic]

Respectfully if this is what you think I'm not even gonna bother

They're 2 and 1 with Schneider as the starting halfback this year and went 10-4 with him in the halves last year.

Schneider isn't a better player than Luai obviously but they're winning games with him.

Again as I said, it's much easier to play to slot into a team and play a caretaker role than it to go elsewhere and become the system.

 

[Needaname]

They're 2 and 1 with Schneider as the starting halfback this year and went 10-4 with him in the halves last year.

Schneider isn't a better player than Luai obviously but they're winning games with him.

Again as I said, it's much easier to play to slot into a team and play a caretaker role than it to go elsewhere and become the system.

So on that note you’ve wrote him off completely? He was poor this week, personally I think he should of been rested with us playing out of the country after a 4 day turn around.

 

[Oldman]

Galvin hasn't been on the Tigers for almost 2 months now and he still has more try assists and line break assists than Luai lol

That probably has something to do with the centre on your side not being able to run into a hole to make a line break let alone score a try.

 

[Lukic]

So on that note you’ve wrote him off completely? He was poor this week, personally I think he should of been rested with us playing out of the country after a 4 day turn around.

No. I don't think he was any worse this week than the prior games he's played for us.

I hated the signing in 2023 and I hate it now. It's a massive overpay for a player who's reputation far exceeds his ability.

If we signed him for 3 years on 800k a year, I'd say it was a good signing. But hamstringing ourselves with 5 year mega money deal for a guy who's a solid 5/8th and not much more is an issue.

 

[Ron Brodrick's Spirit]

Just when you think this place can't get any dumber people on here want to offload Luai.

Jehovah give me strength.

 

[Tom Shines]

The only explanation for so much one out boring play is that it’s very Penrith and Melbourne like.
The problem is we don’t have the class and strike players or a good enough defence to afford playing this boring style of play and wait for our class players to come up with the special plays.

Again I ask …why play a style of play that suits the opposition? Did we really think that we were going to get over the top ot the Warriors through the middle? You got to play to your own strengths…to me it’s like they are just happy to keep the games tight and not get embarrassed…maybe win if you get a lot of things going your way and the opposition is off their game

 

[Needaname]

No. I don't think he was any worse this week than the prior games he's played for us.

I hated the signing in 2023 and I hate it now. It's a massive overpay for a player who's reputation far exceeds his ability.

If we signed him for 3 years on 800k a year, I'd say it was a good signing. But hamstringing ourselves with 5 year mega money deal for a guy who's a solid 5/8th and not much more is an issue.

It’s not really a mega deal though. 5 years ago it would have been and 5 years ago there was players on 1.2mil contracts. Now it’s pretty common to have your best player on over a mil.
I would admit tigers had to offer about 300k on top of what a top 4 team would have offered and about 200k on top of a Top 8 quality side and about 100k what the rest of the comp would have had to offer.

 

[Needaname]

Again I ask …why play a style of play that suits the opposition? Did we really think that we were going to get over the top ot the Warriors through the middle? You got to play to your own strengths…to me it’s like they are just happy to keep the games tight and not get embarrassed…maybe win if you get a lot of things going your way and the opposition is off their game

Don’t you have more chance of winning a tight game then 1 that you get blown away in?

 

[Tom Shines]

Don’t you have more chance of winning a tight game then 1 that you get blown away in?

We only lost by 20 right to a team missing half their spine ..

 

[mtd#2]

Yes …every team adheres to the salary cap… how silly to think otherwise

🤣🤣

The AFL didn't think it was silly providing salary cap exemptions for GWS when they entered the competition to help them sign marquee players and set them up for success. And it worked...

There is a complete lack of foresight by the NRL to think that placing a club on the opposite side of the country where there is no established rugby league systems in place is going to succeed just because the NRL want it to or because Mal Meninga is the coach.

 

[Jolls]

Again I ask …why play a style of play that suits the opposition? Did we really think that we were going to get over the top ot the Warriors through the middle? You got to play to your own strengths…to me it’s like they are just happy to keep the games tight and not get embarrassed…maybe win if you get a lot of things going your way and the opposition is off their game

I don't think our plan was to play like that. I expect that we looked one out and up the middle because we couldn't find a way to shift it when we wanted to. We failed to exploit the weaknesses that presented because we tried to execute our game plan.

Game plans are great until there is another team involced - then you have entice them to let you play the way you want. You can do that by bashing the door down - but if your pack is not dominant it takes a bit more finesse.

 

[Tom Shines]

🤣🤣

The AFL didn't think it was silly providing salary cap exemptions for GWS when they entered the competition to help them sign marquee players and set them up for success. And it worked...

There is a complete lack of foresight by the NRL to think that placing a club on the opposite side of the country where there is no established rugby league systems in place is going to succeed just because the NRL want it to or because Mal Meninga is the coach.

I remember the same was said about Melbourne… and unlike them they aren’t starting from scratch as they have North Sydney to provide a pathways base …. I’m betting that they will have success immediately…PVL doesn’t want to be embarrassed in front of the AFL hacks

 

[Tom Shines]

I don't think our plan was to play like that. I expect that we looked one out and up the middle because we couldn't find a way to shift it when we wanted to. We failed to exploit the weaknesses that presented because we tried to execute our game plan.

Game plans are great until there is another team involced - then you have entice them to let you play the way you want. You can do that by bashing the door down - but if your pack is not dominant it takes a bit more finesse.

We have played like that for months now …since the 64-0 loss in Week 10 … they actually played a lot wider weeks 2 through 9, and scored a lot more points in that period

 

[Telltails]

Just when you think this place can't get any dumber people on here want to offload Luai.

Jehovah give me strength.

That's the mantra sack them all and then lament about how much better they go in STRONGER teams and systems.

 

[mtd#2]

I remember the same was said about Melbourne… and unlike them they aren’t starting from scratch as they have North Sydney to provide a pathways base …. I’m betting that they will have success immediately…PVL doesn’t want to be embarrassed in front of the AFL hacks

Melbourne is an hour from Sydney... Perth is 5 hours...Big difference when players are considering uplifting their lives and family.. my money is that it won't be a success in the first year as you suggest.

 

[Lukic]

It’s not really a mega deal though. 5 years ago it would have been and 5 years ago there was players on 1.2mil contracts. Now it’s pretty common to have your best player on over a mil.
I would admit tigers had to offer about 300k on top of what a top 4 team would have offered and about 200k on top of a Top 8 quality side and about 100k what the rest of the comp would have had to offer.

I guess, especially given there will be two new teams coming in and potentially a new tv deal which will boost the cap. But still, a considerable overpay.