{"id":791501,"date":"2026-07-10T14:21:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T14:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/791501\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T14:21:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T14:21:25","slug":"nrl-news-2026-benji-marshall-sets-sights-on-finals-pursuit-jarome-luai-situation-not-a-distraction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/791501\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026 | Benji Marshall sets sights on finals pursuit, Jarome Luai situation not a distraction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wests Tigers<\/a> coach Benji Marshall<\/a> says nothing is finalised around Jarome Luai<\/a>\u2019s looming exit from the club and that his players will not \u201cthrow in the towel\u201d when a spot inside the top eight is still within arms reach. <\/p>\n

The door is open for Luai to leave the club as early as the season\u2019s end, with the club informing the star playmaker that he is free to play elsewhere in 2027<\/a> despite already securing a deal to join the PNG Chiefs from 2028<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"Benji<\/p>\n

Benji Marshall speaks to reporters after the Wests Tigers\u2019 loss to the Warriors\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

The Eels have put there hand up to take on the four-time premiership for one year<\/a>, but the distraction that possible move has created is one that several league greats fear is making the Tigers \u201clook like a fractured playing group\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Marshall and Luai refused to comment on the matter when speaking to Nine before their 26-6 defeat to the Warriors on Friday<\/a> evening. <\/p>\n

The Tigers coach\u2019s view about speaking on the topic did not change post-match.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith those things, you can\u2019t control what comes out or what gets said,\u201d he told reporters at Campbelltown Sports Stadium. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to talk about. I will talk about the game that is what I\u2019m here for. Anything else, we will talk about another day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked when that day will be, Benji replied: \u201cWhen it comes to something being done, we will let you know. At the moment, nothing is finalised or done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marshall did not dive into how he felt Luai had performed on Friday, rather simply said that the \u201cwhole team could\u2019ve played better\u201d.<\/p>\n

With just two wins separating his playing group from sitting inside the top eight, Marshall made clear that the Tigers will not go down this season without a fight. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe result was definitely disappointing,\u201d Marshall said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe missed the start and the sin bin hurt us, but all the boys showed a bit of fight to get back to 14-6. There were some good efforts [in the second half] but at the same time, we are at the end of the season and need to get results. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe aren\u2019t going to throw in the towel. We are going to have a couple of days off and we will go get away from footy then come back and have another crack at it. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have a group of guys here that ain\u2019t going to give up, so we will keep fighting to the death.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wests Tigers coach Benji Marshall says nothing is finalised around Jarome Luai\u2019s looming exit from the club and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-791501","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\/791501","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=791501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}