{"id":286981,"date":"2025-11-15T21:58:39","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T21:58:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/286981\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T21:58:39","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T21:58:39","slug":"luai-makes-tigers-call-as-free-agency-heats-up-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/286981\/","title":{"rendered":"Luai makes Tigers call as free agency heats up &#8211; NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/wests-tigers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wests Tigers<\/a> marquee playmaker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/jarome-luai\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jarome Luai<\/a> has been bombarded with queries and questions around his playing future at the club, speculation he has rushed to clear up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Luai has cooled any speculation about exploring the open market, insisting he has no intention of speaking to rival clubs despite having a November 1 clause in his contract.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Luai&#8217;s management negotiated a trigger in his $6 million Tigers deal that technically allows him to field interest from other clubs from November 1.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">However, the star five-eighth says he is fully committed to the Tigers and won&#8217;t be entertaining external offers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">&#8220;I have no intentions of doing that,&#8221; Luai told the Code Sports.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-223055\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"NRL Round 14, 2025: Wests Tigers vs Penrith Panthers\" width=\"2355\" height=\"1569\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/089A4002_e.jpg.webp.webp\"\/>Jarome Luai in action between the Round 14 clash between the Wests Tigers and Penrith Panthers. (Photo: Joshua Davis)<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">The clause, he explained, was a security measure when signing, not an indication he planned to test the market.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">&#8220;The clauses at the end of the day are for security and to hold people accountable,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">&#8220;The Tigers haven&#8217;t had the best track record in the past, so I think my manager did a great job securing the deal that I have now.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Luai believes his actions across his first season at Concord show where his loyalty lies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">&#8220;I think I have shown I am fully committed to the Tigers and to my team,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">&#8220;Hopefully, I have shown where I stand with my actions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">The former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/penrith-panthers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Penrith Panthers<\/a> star made 21 appearances in his debut campaign at the Tigers, helping lift the club from back-to-back-to-back wooden spoons to a 13th-place finish.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Luai was also a key figure for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/rugby-league\/international-teams\/samoa\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Samoa<\/a> during their Pacific Championships run and will return to pre-season training just before Christmas as the Tigers build toward a long-awaited finals push.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">&#8220;I come back a week or two before Chrissie and see how the boys are doing,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">&#8220;Pretty keen to have a proper break and spend some time with my family and the kids.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">The Tigers are set to meet next week with the management of both Luai and fullback <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/jahream-bula\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jahream Bula<\/a> to discuss their futures, though Luai&#8217;s comments suggest the club has little reason for concern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wests Tigers marquee playmaker Jarome Luai has been bombarded with queries and questions around his playing future at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-286981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}