Rugby league players can be boring enough as it is – it’d be a shame if Jarome Luai became one of them.
Luai is the kind of player who gets fans riled up. He gets Panthers, NSW and Samoan supporters out of their seat to cheer and every other fan on their feet to jeer.
When the Samoans try to upset England in their World Cup semi-final at London’s Emirates Stadium this weekend, Luai will be crucial to their chances of creating a slice of history.
In an age when most professional athletes, particularly rugby league players, are automatons who can regurgitate cliches one match at a time with 110% certainty, Luai stands out.
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He’s had fun in media interviews ever since his rookie season of 2018 when he made an eye-catching starting debut for Penrith in a two-try performance in a victory over Newcastle – some say he’s cheeky, others say he’s an attention seeker.
Jarome Luai of the Panthers celebrates winning the NRL premiership. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
On the field, he plays with a swagger and can get under the skin of opponents with sledging – the kind of tactic which has been used by playmakers in every era of the sport.
If an NRL player can be put off their game with a few choice words, then maybe they shouldn’t be on the field.
Luai is known as the CEO at Penrith. He’s their “chief energy officer”. The 25-year-old five-eighth carries the team’s boombox around, controlling the music for the pre-game rev-up in the sheds.
He also leads their victory song after the game. Every successful team needs a Luai and the Panthers have had a lot of success in recent years, collecting back-to-back NRL premierships so there’s been plenty of vision of Luai front and centre of their victory celebrations.
(Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images for RLWC)
Penrith, after losing the 2020 Grand Final, have shed the nice guy label after being bossed around by the Melbourne side that night.
Every Panther has added extra mongrel to their game, not just Luai, but because he’s seen as the vocal focal point of the team’s self-assertive demeanour, he cops a lot of abuse from rival fans.
Amid one of the most dreary Grand Final week build-ups in living memory, Luai came up with the most memorable quote when he quipped “You can call us daddy” in a Sydney Morning Herald interview after being asked who held the title of big brother between Penrith and their more-established western Sydney rivals Parramatta.
It was part of a feature where Luai was celebrating the fact that so many of Penrith’s team – 14 in fact – were home-grown products or players who had made their debut for a club that represents an area of the Harbour City which has been maligned for many years.
While the quote in isolation made for plenty of clickbaitable headlines and online outrage, who did he really harm with the throwaway line? If the Eels players or team officials were distracted by something as innocuous as that in grand final week, they really were no chance of causing an upset.
Storm players filmed themselves mocking Penrith’s Mt Druitt roots during their celebrations after the 2020 decider and when the video got back to the Panthers, it was timely motivation for them to knock Melbourne out of the next year’s finals.
Luai has done a mountain of work in the community for the crew at FTA (From the Area, For the Area), who proudly celebrate and propagate the aspirational spirit of Western Sydney.
The Panthers describe Luai’s efforts in the community as nothing short of phenomenal – he volunteers his time throughout Mt Druitt and is heavily involved with his local church.
Luai is often one of the last players off the field after games because he’s signing autographs and getting photos with the fans.
His on-field antics may ruffle the feathers of older generations of NRL fans, he’s a pied piper to young Panthers supporters. No one is more popular than the Prince of Penrith, Nathan Cleary, as the face of the franchise but Luai is not far behind.
When his Samoan team copped a 60-6 flogging at the hands of England in the World Cup tournament opener, it was noticeable to see how many fans of neither team were quick to rip into Luai as supposedly being a run of the mill player when not benefitting from being part of the Penrith machine alongside Cleary.
Even the biggest Luai fan wouldn’t say he’s a better player or nearly as dominant as Cleary but that’s not what the Panthers need him to be. They have a halfback who is an on-field general with an elite kicking and passing game and what they need from Luai is to be a complementary halves partner, who brings variety and an element of unpredictability.
With 17 try assists this season, he ranked 14th overall in the NRL and fourth among five-eighths so even his harshest critic would have to concede he pulls his weight.
(Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Luai was also the target of abuse after the premiership win over Parra when it appeared he had kicked Isaiah Papali’i after the Kiwi forward had been tackled. Eels teammate Ryan Matterson even complained about it when he copped a ban for a crusher tackle on Dylan Edwards.
The only problem was Luai did nothing apart from move his foot closer to the tackled player before the play-the-ball without touching him, which was not revealed until hours later in the 24-7 news cycle when a new camera angle was shown.
All this is not to say Luai hasn’t had a few moments he’d like to take back.
His performance in Origin for NSW this year was too passive – he didn’t step up to help Cleary enough when Queensland targeted him, particularly with their rushing defence on his kicks.
And screaming at Selwyn Cobbo when he was concussed trying to tackle Matt Burton was a mistake. The Maroons rookie was clearly in a bad way after he copped a teammate’s hip to the head in the incident in the early stages of Origin III.
Jarome Luai of the Blues drops the ball in a tackle during game two of the State of Origin series in Perth. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Luai said there was no need to apologise because he was not aware the young winger had been knocked out but you would hope he’ll take a split-second to check in any future incidents like this before carrying on like he did.
And the use of the N-word in a caption following the premiership win last month is indefensible. Luai, and other players, use it among each other behind closed doors as a term of affection but even though he didn’t cop any sanctions from the NRL for using it in a social media post, you would hope it’s the kind of mistake he won’t make again.
It’s a fine line when you’re a professional athlete between being known as confident or cocky. The “Daddy’s home” Instagram post is the kind of post that makes the NRL that bit more interesting, the other one was stupid.
Hopefully, Luai retains his naturally frank and entertaining demeanour when engaging with the media and the fans throughout his career.
Sportspeople who stray from the norm early in their career by showing a bit of personality in interviews often have that beaten out of them by that enemy of all things interesting – the club media manager.
Modern rugby league players are too frequently programmed to be robots on and off the field. Those who bring a dash of colour should be encouraged to be themselves.
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