The double standards on luai is crazy. He has not lived up to the lofty expectations on the field but the outrage and pile on in the last few days has been ridiculous. He's had great games this year and terrible games, and a bunch of quiet ones.
Season overview so far.
Makes permanent switch to 6 in off season. Great game vs Cowboys round 1 with multiple try assists with taylan may getting bad injury. 2 try assists vs Rabbitohs in an average performance where game is locked up then both halves get injured late and Rabbits win it. 3 weeks without him and Taylan the team wins and plays very well beating a great warriors team, eels easter monday and knights understrength. The fans are relentless saying luai should not be put back in the team with jock and AD on fire. Broncos game is a toss of the coin and game is decided in the end by some poor errors by Makasini and a silly play where all 3 players AD, madden and luai spread ball to the left rather than setting up for field goal. The following week Raiders at leichhardt is a good team win with AD man of the match.
A few days later Luai travels to PNG to check things out and signs a few days later.
Since then, 3 weeks vs Sharks, Storm, Manly are all floggings with Hope, Madden and Toa in particular poor in defence. 3/4 of the spine were all out during these weeks with reserve grade backup players like Madden, Hope and Mason.
The bulldogs game luai was one of the best players and defensively was targeted all 2nd half by Tupouniua but stood up. The following week is the worst loss of the year and luai's worst performance individually. Following week he scores a hat trick in a comeback win to farewell Leichhardt. Dolphins after that luai has 4 try assists in a losing team. Knights game luai is a ghost and misses a key tackle at end of game leading to match winner. Delayed concussion rules him out of dragons game which we lose 24-10 in a lacklustre performance. Last night jarome played rubbish and probably was mentally impacted by the news and attention on him.
The past month or 2 luai has played better than bula, turuva, koroisau, terrell may and other key players but is copping the most (simply because he's on big coin). Scapegoating him doesn't solve anything. The injuries to key players has been horrific and terrible timing with Luai's announcement. The media and external pressure seems to be too much. It's the club moving Luai on. Everyone having a go at him not being loyal to Benji or the club or comparing it to the Galvin situation should remember he backed Benji during the Galvin situation and was influential in getting Terrell May in Samoa camp in 2024 to the Tigers as a late November signing. No one had this same level of vitriol for DCE last year who is a club legend who played over a decade at Manly. I liken this situation to Ben Hunt who was booed towards the back end of his dragons career and had a falling out with the coach.
