New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1<\/a>.<\/p>\nTherefore, the Chiefs are free to target Luai\u2019s current teammates.<\/p>\n
Now PNG bosses are reportedly eyeing off a big play for back rower Samuela Fainu, who is said to be a recruitment option for the Chiefs ahead of their debut season in 2028.<\/p>\n
Luai was reportedly granted permission to leave the Tigers a year early in a bid to free up salary cap space, with the club paying $500,000 of his $1.2 million salary next season at the Eels.<\/p>\n
Tigers reduced to 11 men in UGLY finish | 00:42<\/p>\n
Therefore, the merger club freed up $700,000 and those funds were reportedly set to be used to re-sign the Fainu brothers \u2014 Samuela, Latu and Sione.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, Luai has reportedly signed a deal to become the face of Pepsi in Papua New Guinea, becoming the first of his third-party deals in the pacific which could see him earn millions over the next four years.<\/p>\n
Luai will reportedly have to travel to PNG a handful of times throughout the 2027 season to fulfill his duties.<\/p>\n
The Tigers reportedly had issues with him taking time away from club duties, while the Eels and coach Jason Ryles aren\u2019t concerned.<\/p>\n
Benji reacts to Tigers’ late meltdown | 04:22<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a pro \u2014 as long as he turns up and does what we need him to do at training, and playing and performing, you know what I mean?\u201d Ryles said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a pretty big part of all the players\u2019 lives now, especially the boys at the pointy end. So, you know, it\u2019s not only just being a footy player now, there\u2019s a brand and all the rest of it that goes with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo for me, as long as a footy comes first (I don\u2019t have a problem).\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The PNG Chiefs are reportedly eyeing off another Tigers recruitment raid, with Jarome Luai\u2019s departure from the club…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":809173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-809172","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\/809172","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=809172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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