{"id":796385,"date":"2026-07-12T23:19:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T23:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/796385\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T23:19:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T23:19:16","slug":"martin-luai-rumours-of-luai-benji-feud-intensify-after-curious-instagram-acts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/796385\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin Luai: Rumours of Luai-Benji feud intensify after curious Instagram acts"},"content":{"rendered":"

NRL<\/a> legend Billy Slater<\/a> says \u201csomething has changed\u201d at Concord as speculation of a rift between Wests Tigers<\/a> coach Benji Marshall<\/a> and marquee player Jarome Luai<\/a> intensifies.<\/p>\n

The Tigers on Saturday confirmed Luai will leave the club at the end of this season<\/a> despite having a contract for 2027 worth $1.2 million.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tigers head coach Benji Marshall and Jarome Luai when they were on good terms.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

The bombshell dropped barely two months after Luai announced he would forfeit his 2028 deal with the team to join the NRL\u2019s newest franchise, the Papua New Guinea Chiefs<\/a>, for their inaugural season.<\/p>\n

The Tigers were sitting third on the NRL ladder at the time of that announcement, and they have capitulated badly since, winning just two games in 10 weeks to tumble down to 13th place.<\/p>\n

When Luai signed with the Chiefs, he and Marshall both fronted media to spruik a mutual understanding and respect, with the coach claiming, \u201cThere\u2019s nothing but gratitude from me for what he\u2019s done for our club so far, and what he\u2019s going to do over the next 18 months\u201d.<\/p>\n

But their relationship is now under the microscope, with Nine\u2019s Danny Weidler telling Triple M radio over the weekend, \u201cI don\u2019t think Benji and Jarome are as close as they were\u201d.<\/p>\n

When Triple M posted that quote to social media, Luai\u2019s father Martin liked and commented an \u201cOK\u201d symbol, suggesting Weidler\u2019s mail is correct.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe line from the Tigers has changed, because when Jarome signed with PNG the line was \u2018well we have Jarome for the next 18 months, he\u2019s a Tiger\u2019… and now it\u2019s changed,\u201d Slater said on Nine\u2019s Sunday Footy Show.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething has changed behind the scenes, that we haven\u2019t seen, for the Tigers to think differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luai has championed a \u201cteam first\u201d mentality since joining the Tigers from Penrith two years ago, even criticising young playmaker Lachlan Galvin publicly last year for wanting to leave the club.<\/p>\n

But reports suggest club teammates and staff have come to question Luai\u2019s commitment since his decision to quit his Tigers deal.<\/p>\n

News Corp reports a social media post from Luai recently angered club officials and players, who believed he was taking a thinly veiled swipe at Marshall and the coaching staff over team selections.<\/p>\n

NRL great Brad Fittler believes the decision to cut Luai loose at the end of this season was inevitable once the team began to flounder.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Jarome Luai\u2019s dad leaves an intriguing comment.\u00a0Triple M<\/p>\n

\u201cSo round eight Jarome went up to PNG and signed with the Chiefs. Prior to round eight the Tigers were sitting third, and had lost two games,\u201d Fittler told Nine\u2019s Sunday Footy Show.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo in that next 10 weeks or so they\u2019ve won two games. So to say it hasn\u2019t had an impact, it\u2019s had a massive impact.\u00a0I know there\u2019s been some\u00a0injuries\u00a0to key players.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing about Jarome is, and he\u2019s very good at it, is he can bring people together, he\u2019s got a lot of charisma.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then when you go and sign somewhere else, all of a sudden that message you\u2019ve been selling, it loses its power.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think some of the players are now starting to doubt that \u2018team first\u2019 thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m Benji I\u2019m saying well, I\u2019ve lost control here, I need to get back control – so I fully understand what the Tigers are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luai is yet to confirm where he will play football in 2027, although the Eels have been floated as a leading contender for his signature.<\/p>\n

\"Luai<\/p>\n

Luai was the first player to sign with the PNG Chiefs.\u00a0NRL Imagery<\/p>\n

They are reportedly poised to offer $700,000 to Luai – with the Tigers paying the remainder of his $1.2m salary next year – for just one season of his services.<\/p>\n

Parramatta legend Nathan Hindmarsh is against that idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at Parramatta at the moment. Will they be premiership contenders next year with Jarome Luai?\u201d Hindmarsh said on Triple M over the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment, they are improving slowly – they\u2019ve got some great young talent coming through.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think Jarome will make the difference… (Luai and Mitchell Moses) is a great halves combination. I\u2019m just saying surely you\u2019re not going to be spending $700,000 on a halfback that is going to be there for one year. A gap year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would not be wasting $700,000 or more on a half that is going to be there for a year if you\u2019re not going to be at the grand final or thereabouts. I think the money can be spent elsewhere on long-term (options).\u201d<\/p>\n

The Perth Bears<\/a>, who will enter the NRL next season, have also been floated as a one-year option for Luai before he joins the Chiefs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NRL legend Billy Slater says \u201csomething has changed\u201d at Concord as speculation of a rift between Wests Tigers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-796385","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\/796385","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=796385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}