OFFICIAL Jarome Luai - #295

[Telltails]

Are these the same professional explayers who told us that Storm would win the GF?

Predicting what they think will happen and commenting on what did happen is not the same.

 

[GNR4LIFE]

Are these the same professional explayers who told us that Storm would win the GF?

That’s one wet lettuce you have there.

 

[innsaneink]

Are these the same professional explayers who told us that Storm would win the GF?

💪💪💪💪

 

[Tucker]

Sad to see you lock in on Luai, @Tucker as you usually get these right when you critique a player. Do you see much positive in his play? Given up on him?

I do see positives in his game, and it’s disappointing that we haven’t seen them this year. My strong suspicion is that he’s missing Cleary’s controlling influence and finding the responsibility a bit overwhelming right now...but saying that usually invites a pile-on, so I tend to keep that opinion to myself.

I haven’t given up on him, though I’ll be honest, I’ve never really liked his style. To me he’s always been a bit of a showpony and a serial agitating smartarse....not my kind of player. That said, he’s played in a lot of big games now: a World Cup final series, 5 NRL grand finals, and five finals campaigns. Not many halves in the comp can boast that résumé. Surely he’s learned something from those experiences and it’s time we started seeing it.

I don’t really buy into all the talk about “creating cultures.” The family-club stuff is nice enough, but I’d rather win footy games with a pack of ruthless competitors than a group who just talk about how close they are. What frustrates me most is that he refused to delete his contract clauses...real leadership would have been doing that when the Galvin situation blew up. We need a hard-nosed leader, and so far he hasn’t supplied that.

Hopefully he can have some honest conversations over the break and come back in 2026 refreshed, focused, and ready to rip in. There’s still a good player there, we just need to see the mature version step up.

 

[Tucker]

No Tucker knows more than everyone how dare you question him

Its called an opinion you little dope.
Why not put yours forward instead of merely sniping at others?

 

[Tucker]

can't wait to see @Tucker try and argue against this when it's two of his special bum boys.

Why do I need to argue against it?
Unlike people like you, my opinion is not formed upon what others are saying.
Maybe you should try that sometime and your little poddy wouldnt be so dull?

 

[Vicious]

I do see positives in his game, and it’s disappointing that we haven’t seen them this year. My strong suspicion is that he’s missing Cleary’s controlling influence and finding the responsibility a bit overwhelming right now...but saying that usually invites a pile-on, so I tend to keep that opinion to myself.

I haven’t given up on him, though I’ll be honest, I’ve never really liked his style. To me he’s always been a bit of a showpony and a serial agitating smartarse....not my kind of player. That said, he’s played in a lot of big games now: a World Cup final series, an NRL grand final, and five finals campaigns. Not many halves in the comp can boast that résumé. Surely he’s learned something from those experiences and it’s time we started seeing it.

I don’t really buy into all the talk about “creating cultures.” The family-club stuff is nice enough, but I’d rather win footy games with a pack of ruthless competitors than a group who just talk about how close they are. What frustrates me most is that he refused to delete his contract clauses...real leadership would have been doing that when the Galvin situation blew up. We need a hard-nosed leader, and so far he hasn’t supplied that.

Hopefully he can have some honest conversations over the break and come back in 2026 refreshed, focused, and ready to rip in. There’s still a good player there, we just need to see the mature version step up.

There is no doubt Luai is a quality player, but I agree for the money we are paying him he needs to be more influential on the field which translates to wins and featuring in Dally M points, he was nowhere to be seen on the Dally M points ladder in 2025.
If high profile highly paid players are helping their team get regular win and they are featuring in the Dally M points, nobody can question their value.

 

[upthetigers]

Couldn’t agree more. Anyone who says he’s not worth the money or they wouldn’t be disappointed if he left has no idea what’s going on.

There has been a culture shift no doubt can he please play in the trials se he's right to go round 1. I think some criticism is deserving we need more from him on the field. You're paying him 1.2M to win games.

 

[WesternSuburbsBoy]

Its called an opinion you little dope.
Why not put yours forward instead of merely sniping at others?

Why so mad bro i'm just paying compliments your footy nous... you know more then everyone mate you're a legend the forum GOAT as the kids say.

 

[tig_prmz]

All the critics I've noticed of Luai are comparing his contract value to his on-field delivery this season. It's getting a bit tiresome.

Ponder this ...

If we didn't sign Luai, who were going to sign to reset our squad towards a successful future?

What about the impact that Luai has had on our playing roster as a culture leader? Every single WT player I have heard interviewed about him has commented how he has almost single-handedly changed the culture of the playing group!

What about the impact that Luai has had on the marketing of our club & even the culture of our staff with his personality and leadership?

Ok so Luai hasn't been a match-winner or broken a game open this season, just remember it's the 1st season he's played with most of our players & in our system disrupted by a major mid-season issue.

Let's see how he grows with this team and plays off the back of an improved forward pack and with his combo with Samuela & Taylan on the left.

We're a bitter & twisted fanbase and rightly so but give the guy a break, he's done more for this club in 12 months than 99% of players in our club over the past decade.

I did mention that he has had an impact off the field, but other players aren't stupid. They can see Luai is struggling. He has done a great job at getting us signings like Mays, KPP, Fainus etc.

His on-field is important and you cannot neglect that.

He's able to bring in players because they want to play with him, that won't last long if he doesn't perform.

$1.2m is important because that's money you can spend elsewhere.

 

[gregjm87]

I did mention that he has had an impact off the field, but other players aren't stupid. They can see Luai is struggling. He has done a great job at getting us signings like Mays, KPP, Fainus etc.

His on-field is important and you cannot neglect that.

He's able to bring in players because they want to play with him, that won't last long if he doesn't perform.

$1.2m is important because that's money you can spend elsewhere.

He didn't bring in the Fainus nor is there any indication he played a role in KPP.

He reportedly played a role in bringing in Terrell who then helped land Taylan so I'll give him credit for the Mays. Though I think Roosters cutting Terrell when they did (after other clubs had filled their roster) did us more favours than Luai as we had minimal competition for his signature.

People also like to attribute Turuva to him (there is an obvious connection there so fair enough) but I think we've overpaid for Turuva and for what we offered he wouldn't have been looking anywhere else (and, yes, that is just my opinion and I seem to be on my own on here with that).

 

[twentyforty]

Predicting what they think will happen and commenting on what did happen is not the same.

I agree with you in some measure, its far easier to comment on a past event than it is to predict a future event. However, for those deeply involved in the game there’s not a lot of difference between making predictions and doing things which contribute to that outcome.

We predicted Brooks would be hopeless and offered him only $450k. He got $650k at Manly and we found he gave them a great season. It was so good that we congratulated him for playing finals footy.

We also predicted that if we paid three times the amount for the Penrith 6 and play him as a 7 we would be far better off. Just saying. If Brooks was handled better we probably would be just as well off.