Luai snubs Tigers awards night in sad end to controversial chapter
Jarome Luai’s two-year tenure at the Wests Tigers has ended on another sour note after he elected to skip the club’s end-of-year awards night.
Instead, the Eels-then-Chiefs bound star has spent the past week on a World Cup promotional trip in Samoa with Storm gun Sua Faalogo and Eels enforcer Junior Paulo.
Jarome Luai skipped the club’s end-of-season awards night. Getty Images
About the same time the Tigers announced Alex Twal had won the Kelly-Barnes Medal for the club’s best and fairest on Tuesday night, Luai reshared to Instagram a Rugby League Samoa video from the trip.
The Tigers told nine.com.au they knew Luai would not be in attendance. While it’s not uncommon for players to skip the end-of-season awards nights, Luai was the highest-paid player and a co-captain.
He is still contracted to the club until the end of October on a deal that nets him $1.2 million a year.
A club representative said Luai was one of only a handful of apologies, with a "vast majority" of the senior playing group in attendance.
Luai’s manager has also been contacted for comment.
The snubbing is the final ugly chapter on a season that once promised so much for Tigers fans, but ended with an all-too familiar whimper.
When Luai announced in April he would become the Chiefs’ marquee signing for 2028, the Tigers were third on the NRL ladder with five wins from their first seven matches.
But the club then capitulated to lose 14 of their next 17 matches and slump to 15th on the ladder and miss the finals for a 15th straight season.
The club also stumbled from crisis to crisis. Rumours of a feud between Luai and coach Benji Marshall continue to simmer, despite reassurances from both there is “no bad blood” between them.
The Tigers announced in July it would cut ties with Luai a year early. He was shortly after confirmed to join the Eels on a one-year stop-gap deal before moving to Port Moresby.
Two weeks later, gunpowder was poured on simmering rumours of a divided Tigers dressing room when Adam Doueihi made himself unavailable for the round 21 clash against the Raiders – days after the club had successfully fought a one-match suspension – after he was told he would be starting at lock rather than the halves.
Doueihi was upset he was the one being moved out of the halves to allow Javon Andrews to make his debut. Doueihi and Andrews on paper appears to be a long-term halves option for the club.
Luai raised eyebrows last month when he flew to Papua New Guinea the day after being injured during a Tigers game, so he could present a trophy at a golf tournament.
Luai’s two year tenure at Concord - after signing a five-year deal - is sure to be remembered by fans, but certainly not for the reasons they had hoped.
