The contract of Wests Tigers superstar signing Jarome Luai includes an option in his favour that could allow the playmaker to leave the joint venture club after just two seasons.
In a major development heading into next season, this masthead can reveal Luai will become a free agent following his first season at the Wests Tigers after the club agreed to player options in the final three years of his five-year contract.
Jarome Luai and Wests Tigers coach Benji Marshall.Credit: Getty
Luai’s deal, worth a reported $6 million over five years, is guaranteed in the first two years but allows him to leave if things don’t work out the way he hopes in each of the following three years.
It means rival clubs will be free to negotiate with Luai potentially as early as November 1 next year over a move for the 2027 season, and also that he will effectively be coming off contract at the same time as impressive rookie sensation Lachlan Galvin.
Luai has the option to remain a free agent on November 1 every year thereafter until his Tigers contract expires at the end of the 2029 season.
Sources with knowledge of the situation talking on the condition of anonymity said that the request for the player options was first presented to former chief executive Justin Pascoe.
Jarome Luai and Nathan Cleary after winning their fourth premiership together.Credit: Getty Images
Pascoe, who moved on as chief executive in December 2023, opened negotiations with Luai and his management but knocked back the request to insert the player options in the contract. The former Tigers boss declined to comment when contacted on Thursday.
Pascoe’s successor, Shane Richardson, agreed to the clauses to get the Luai deal over the line in the face of interest from the Panthers, Bulldogs and a Queensland-based team. Richardson declined to comment.
Richardson is an unabashed admirer of the four-time premiership-winning half and recently said: “Jarome Luai is a once-in-a-lifetime halfback. This club was so fortunate to have got him.”
The options in Luai’s favour place more pressure on coach Benji Marshall to make the most of a significant recruitment drive that has brought the likes of Sunia Turuva, Jack Bird, Royce Hunt and Terrell May to the Tigers for 2025.
Richardson this year had to contend with a free agency clause in the contract of Stefano Utoikamanu that allowed the star prop to walk out on the Tigers for the Melbourne Storm.
The player option, agreed to by Pascoe and former football staff members Tim Sheens and Warren McDonnell, allowed Utoikamanu to explore options at rival clubs for the 2025 season if he didn’t play three State of Origin matches for NSW or the Tigers missed the top eight.
The Tigers offered him a five-year, $4 million extension to stay at the club, but Utoikamanu chose to join Craig Bellamy at the Storm. The Tigers have since replaced him with Hunt and May.
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