Jarome Luai has labelled a decision to knock back South Sydney and stay at Penrith as the best call of his life, with the playmaker now leaving a four-time NRL premiership winner.
Luai’s final premiership celebrations with Panthers teammates will continue into Wednesday, with players to front a fan day at BlueBet Stadium.
But time is nearly up for the 27-year-old at the foot of the mountains, ahead of next season’s high-profile shift to Wests Tigers.
It is not the first time he has almost been lured out of Penrith.
Luai was close to leaving the Panthers for South Sydney in 2018, when Penrith had signed James Maloney to partner Nathan Cleary in the halves.
With several other clubs also circling and Luai stuck in reserve grade, his parents also advised him to move on from the Panthers to pursue a better opportunity.
But he was ultimately talked out of the move by Phil Gould, who insisted the young half should bide his time at Penrith.
“Gus was the main one (who convinced me),” Luai said.
“He just said ‘bide your time, learn off Jimmy and you’ll get your shot in the near future’.
“I know my parents were in my ear about it to go. They were just saying I was ready for my opportunity.
“But I trusted Gus and I loved Penrith, so I stayed.
“(It was) the best thing I’ve done. If I wasn’t here, I would be spewing.”
Penrith eventually moved Maloney on at the end of 2019, backing their long-range planning and believing that was the point where Luai was ready for first grade.
In the four seasons since, Luai and Cleary have won four premierships and been labelled the game’s greatest ever halves combination by Andrew Johns.
Teammates since under-16s, Luai believed their combination had again gone to another level after he had to take charge during Cleary’s injuries this year.
Cleary’s 13 runs in the grand-final win over Melbourne were the most of any finals match in his career, with Luai taking over the organisation at different times.
“It helped me grow a lot, and Nath trusted what he saw when he was out with me in that role,” Luai said.
“It was awesome the way we evolved our game.
“He has been coming to the left side as a No.6 sort of role. It is giving the defence different looks, and that’s what we have come up with.
“And it worked (in the grand final). I didn’t get to play with him much this year, but we made it count.”
