offer tax-free salaries to potential targets.<\/a><\/p>\nRead says that this fact would mean Luai becomes the NRL\u2019s highest-paid player if he ends up signing a deal in the vicinity of his current $1.2 million per season contract.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other big factor we can\u2019t ignore is the money. By going there, even if they pay him what he\u2019s on at the Tigers, he\u2019s going to earn in his hand an extra $1 million over two years because it\u2019s tax free money,\u201d Read said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe money is ridiculous. Aside from the contract money, there are third party deals over there which is all tax free as well. He would instantly become the highest-paid player in rugby league.\u201d <\/p>\n
While he\u2019s not the sole reason for the vast improvement, the Tigers have been trending upwards since Luai arrived at the club.<\/p>\n
After three wooden spoons in four years, the Tigers finished 12th in 2025 and through eight rounds this season, sit in third. <\/p>\n
Luai is all but assured to be at the club for the next two seasons but with the Tigers flying at the moment after several years of misery, what would an announcement that the star playmaker is set to leave do?<\/p>\n
\u201cWould Tigers fans be thinking these are the headlines we don\u2019t want to read?\u201d Ritchie said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it will derail them, but there will be disappointment.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s entitled to do what he wants but given the timing and there\u2019s finally success at Concord and their chief playmaker essentially leaves.<\/p>\n
Read however thinks there\u2019s a greater problem which could play out if Luai signs with PNG.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the bigger concern for the Tigers is that Jarome is a bit of a pied piper. Blokes follow him. So if Jarome goes, who wants to go there with him. Does Sunia Turuva want to go there with him? Does the May boys want to go?\u201d Read said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think for me, if I\u2019m a Tigers fan, that the biggest concern. The issue is what it does for the other guys in that playing group who are potentially off contract at the end of the year see Jarome go and say \u2018that doesn\u2019t look so bad\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jarome Luai is being tipped to sign with the PNG Chiefs from 2028 in a bombshell decision. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,689,42341,26501,306632,307058,28814,307055,763,45715,44080,4582,307056,27288,27296,761,762,673,158,677,4585,27284,49652,307057,159,32657,307059,85,670,11737,4515,100203],"class_list":{"0":"post-633921","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","11":"tag-bombshell-decision","12":"tag-brent-read","13":"tag-career-truth","14":"tag-contract-money","15":"tag-dean-ritchie","16":"tag-dogs-fans","17":"tag-fox-league","18":"tag-highest-paid-player","19":"tag-james-marape","20":"tag-jarome-luai","21":"tag-kingsford-smith-airport","22":"tag-marquee-signing","23":"tag-melanesia","24":"tag-national-rugby-league","25":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","26":"tag-new-south-wales","27":"tag-nrl","28":"tag-oceania","29":"tag-panel-debate","30":"tag-papua-new-guinea","31":"tag-port-moresby","32":"tag-private-charter-flight","33":"tag-rugby-league","34":"tag-season-contract","35":"tag-secret-getaway","36":"tag-sports","37":"tag-sydney","38":"tag-team-tips","39":"tag-wests-tigers","40":"tag-whip-hand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633921","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=633921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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