‘Shattered minds’: Photo exposes State of Origin lie

A damning truth about the prickliest player in the NRL has emerged after the wild scenes during the State of Origin decider.

Bradman B Est and Jarome Luai

COMMENT

Jarome Luai has made a career out of being so divisive that he could spark a riot at a CWA meeting.

Whether representing club, state or country, the Panther’s schtick has been so prickly that he’s managed to brass-off pretty much everyone outside of Penrith.

But after an emphatic 2024 Origin series, Luai has finally united an entire body of people in agreement.

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After years upsetting his own state’s fans as much as the opposition’s, the five-eighth’s masterful contribution to NSW’s series triumph has not only earned him the approval of a whole state, it’s also elevated him to our pantheon of Origin demigods.

Jarome Luai's photo in front of the iconic Caxton Hotel shows he has had the last laugh. Photo: Instagram.

Sure, nobody is saying he should be mentioned alongside your Fittlers, Johnses and Daleys just yet, because he’ll need loads more caps and a sideline commentary gig before entering that exclusive club.

But you can now safely declare the 27 year old a fully-fledged Blues icon in his own unique right, and it’s all for three important reasons.

Firstly, for finally impacting a series from somewhere other than the sin bin.

Secondly, for navigating to victory GPS-free without Nathan Cleary.

And thirdly, and most critically, for achieving it all by being true to himself, namely by continuing to lodge himself so far up Queensland’s nose that he resides permanently in the mezzanine level of their shattered minds.

A photo of the 27-year-old outside the Caxton Hotel standing on Queensland’s still-warm corpse shows the damning truth that there is no reason for the eight million people in NSW not to love him.

Wednesday night rewrites the old script that he is a figure so brash even his teammates avoid him.

It's a lie we all swallowed gleefully.

Yep, nothing can unify a fractured NSW like sticking it up the Queenslanders, and Luai produced his magnum opus on Wednesday night by getting away scot-free with more s***-stirring than Kyle Sandilands.

Not only did he cheekily wave off Maroons fans in the dying stages of the game as they raced back to their horse-drawn carriages to beat the traffic home, he also won the hearts and minds of New South Welshpeople by needling the bejesus out of Daly Cherry-Evans all night.

As we know, going to war with the Queensland skipper inside a place like Suncorp is as brave as entering the Oval Office shirtless and cracking your knuckles.

With every official briefed inside the compound to protect the commander-in-chief at all costs, any provocation needs to be as surgical as it is sassy - and Luai executed with the precision of extracting a wedgie through the eye of a needle.

Not only did he goad the Maroons skipper in to a rare skirmish in the shadows of halftime, he managed to get Queensland penalised from the resulting melee.

Jarome Luai got under Daly Cherry-Evans’ skin. Picture: NRL Photos/Gregg Porteous

It was a rare win for a bloke who usually gets sin-binned for having his shirt untucked, one that left the five-eighth like the little girl in the meme suspiciously grinning in front of a house fire.

But not only are we elevating the Panther to gold-standard Greg Bird status merely for lighting this bonfire, but also because he kept his head while the inferno raged around him.

Yep, Luai played good footy too, complementing his newfound troll-control with his most consistent display of playmaking at Origin level across the entire series.

Not only did he slice open the Maroons defence to calmly send Bradman Best over for the game-breaking try last night, he produced a judicious kicking game throughout the campaign that hemmed in the Maroons like a cut lunch in a pair of Levi’s.

Add his newfound leadership - an unexpected quality for a guy who once had the self control of a starving pitbull - and it’s clear Luai has finally won our hearts, at least until he lips-off again for Penrith next week.

With the cheeky triple-premiership player ditching his boom box in favour of a statesmanlike leadership role - and thankfully the surfboard too - we now sit on the cusp of a long and fruitful love affair with our celebrated anarchist that can be built on series triumphs and Maroon salt.

“We did what we had to do tonight. I love these guys, man. I actually love them!” Luai cooed at full time.

And now we love you too, our once-misunderstood arsonist.

Dane Eldridge is a warped cynic yearning for the glory days of rugby league, a time when the sponges were magic and the Mondays were mad. He’s never strapped on a boot in his life, and as such, should be taken with a grain of salt.

Originally published as ‘Shattered minds’: Photo exposes State of Origin lie