{"id":791587,"date":"2026-07-10T15:16:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T15:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/791587\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T15:16:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T15:16:17","slug":"why-the-change-of-heart-benji-grilled-over-luais-future-as-coach-shuts-down-journo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/791587\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Why the change of heart?\u2019: Benji grilled over Luai\u2019s future as coach shuts down journo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wests Tigers coach Benji Marshall was involved in a fiery exchange with reporters after the club\u2019s finals hopes were dealt another blow following a reality check from the New Zealand Warriors.<\/p>\n<p>Watch every game of every round of the Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? <a href=\"https:\/\/kayosports.com.au\/en-AU\/welcome\/nrl?pg=default&amp;extcamp=fsaeditoriallinkleague-edt-fsp-lnk-awr-grc-nrl-kyo&amp;channel=fsa&amp;campaign=fsacontra&amp;voucher=\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Join now and get your first month for just $1<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>With questions continuing to swirl around the future of co-captain Jarome Luai (who was absent from the press conference), Marshall shut down any discussions surrounding his pending departure.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"i-amphtml-fill-content i-amphtml-replaced-content\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/poster-fallback.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>According to various reports, Luai has been granted permission to depart the club at season\u2019s end despite still being contracted until the end of 2027 before joining the PNG Chiefs the following year, in 2028.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re not going to talk about that today. That can come up at another time and place,\u201d Marshall said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe just want to get through the game, process that, but like with those things you can\u2019t control what comes out or what gets said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s not coming from us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A reporter then pressed Marshall on the club\u2019s reported change in stance regarding Luai\u2019s future, who is reportedly on a $1.2 million-a-season deal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy the change of heart, Benji? Why the change of heart from the club\u2019s point of view?\u201d the journalist asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just said I\u2019m not going to talk about it,\u201d Marshall replied<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut it\u2019s your captain,\u201d the journalist continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m happy to talk about the game,\u201d Marshall continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m here for because we\u2019re processing that right now.<\/p>\n<p>Could Moses replace Luai at the Tigers? | 02:17<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnything else we can talk about that another day when we\u2019re ready to talk about it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen it comes to something being done, we\u2019ll let you know. At the moment nothing\u2019s finalised or done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The fiery response from Marshall came after the Tigers suffered their eighth loss in the past ten matches and stay stuck in 12th place on the ladder.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe result was definitely disappointing. I thought we missed the start and went 14-nil down,\u201d Marshall added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe sin-bin hurts us and then I thought the boys showed a bit of fight to get back to 14-6.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the start of the second half, we sort of missed a try, let in a couple of tries and then we were chasing our tail at the back end.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought there were some good efforts, but at the same time, we\u2019re at the end of the season, where we probably need to get results so it makes it more disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wests Tigers coach Benji Marshall was involved in a fiery exchange with reporters after the club\u2019s finals hopes&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-791587","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\/791587","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=791587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}