{"id":811992,"date":"2026-07-20T10:06:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T10:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/811992\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T10:06:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T10:06:18","slug":"nrl-news-2026-billy-slaters-grim-wests-tigers-admission-jarome-luai-contract-saga-exclusive-comments-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/811992\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026: Billy Slater\u2019s grim Wests Tigers admission, Jarome Luai contract saga, exclusive comments, podcast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Billy Slater<\/a> has delivered a grim assessment of the Wests Tigers<\/a>, admitting that their season has become unsalvageable with seven rounds remaining.<\/p>\n

After starting the season in red-hot form, the Tigers have dropped well outside the top-eight and now only remain a mathematical chance of playing finals.<\/p>\n

\"Luai<\/p>\n

Jarome Luai is set to leave the Tigers.\u00a0NRL Imagery<\/p>\n

The well-documented saga surrounding co-captain Jarome Luai<\/a> has coincided with a major form slump, with the Tigers now needing to win all of their remaining games to even be in contention for a drought-breaking finals berth. <\/p>\n

Luai\u2019s move to the PNG Chiefs for 2028<\/a> and the club\u2019s decision to part ways with him next year, allowing the five-eighth to join the Parramatta Eels<\/a>, has become an unwanted distraction according to Slater, who believes the team harmony that Benji Marshall<\/a> was able to instil during the pre-season has slipped away. <\/p>\n

Asked whether they could still salvage their campaign during Nine\u2019s The Billy Slater Podcast<\/a>, the Maroons coach conceded that all hope appeared gone at Concord.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know the answer to this one – I think the damage has been done to be honest, I don\u2019t know if you can salvage it,\u201d Slater said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe same players are on the field at the moment as the start of the year and they looked like they were gonna play finals. Benji Marshall drew a line in the sand in pre-season and they went out and all bought in to what Benji was bringing. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe injuries were a circuit breaker for where they were going and the momentum they had – and then obviously the Luai situation and him signing with the Chiefs and things changed within the organisation where he\u2019s not gonna be there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think you need team harmony to flow into your footy and that\u2019s what they don\u2019t have. They don\u2019t have this all-in approach and subconsciously, players there aren\u2019t all-in and it would be a frustrating organisation at the moment. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know whether the damage is too far done to get out of it this year. There\u2019s a fair chunk of the season to go, but that light is so dim in the distance. <\/p>\n

\u201cMathematically, they can still make it, but with the way they are playing and the noise around the organisation, they\u2019re not in a great spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marshall\u2019s men face a reasonable month with games against the Raiders, Eels, and Dragons on the horizon, as well as a guaranteed two points with a bye.<\/p>\n

But with clashes against the Roosters and Panthers towards the end of the regular season, the Tigers are at long-odds to make the finals.<\/p>\n

As for the Luai situation and his stop-gap deal for next year, Slater admitted there could be reason for Eels fans to be nervous about his arrival.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can absolutely see that concern,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\"Jarome<\/p>\n

Jarome Luai.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cYou only have to look at what\u2019s happened over the last two months since Jarome signed with the Chiefs. It gets a bit messy, doesn\u2019t it? <\/p>\n

\u201cThe game is too hard if you\u2019re not all-in. Jarome will be going to Parramatta with a mindset to be at his best, no doubt about that, but sometimes it\u2019s subconscious. <\/p>\n

\u201cI can absolutely see the concern that some people may have, signing a player on a short-term contract, when they\u2019ve got something really big in 12 months.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Billy Slater has delivered a grim assessment of the Wests Tigers, admitting that their season has become unsalvageable…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":811993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-811992","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\/811992","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=811992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}