Jarome Luai’s injury setback should have ended any hopes of an historic three-peat. Instead, it allowed Nathan Cleary to etch his name into folklore.
Jarome Luai failed to finish the grand final after again succumbing to his troublesome left shoulder injury.
Luai cut a disconsolate figure as he trudged off Accor Stadium in the 52nd minute. A minute later, Ezra Mam scored the second of his three tries. Isaah Yeo and Scott Sorenson also spent time off the field before passing head-injury assessments, but not even those setbacks were enough to prevent the biggest comeback in grand final history.
He was given an early mark in last week’s commanding win over Melbourne, but this time the pivot had no say in the matter. The 26-year-old could only look on helplessly from the bench as the action unfolded without him. Yet when the hooter sounded, he was the first to congratulate the teammates who achieved the seemingly impossible without him.Asked what the win meant to him, Luai said: “No one has done this before, coming back [from so far back] in 20 minutes.
Due to salary cap constraints, the Panthers can currently only offer Luai – who currently doesn’t have a manager – about $800,000 a season. Given the dearth of playmakers, there would be rival clubs that would be prepared to go to about $1.2 million. Perhaps even more.“That’s part of the decision that I have to make when it comes,” Luai told this masthead during the week.
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