NRL 2024: The Penrith Panthers tough love that has Bulldogs junior Paul Alamoti 80 minutes away from a premiership
Panthers young gun Paul Alamoti has praised Jarome Luai for helping turning his NRL career around, crediting some of the five-eighth’s savage sprays for turning him into a grand final player.
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Paul Alamoti didn’t get tough love at Canterbury, at least not the kind that Penrith teammate Jarome Luai has dished out to the 20-year-old all season long at the foot of the mountains.
Alamoti can’t remember one game, from the 15 he has played for Penrith in 2024, where Luai has not lashed him with an on-field spray.
Not that the young centre is complaining.
With every spray, Alamoti takes a step closer to fulfilling the potential that had the best rugby league scouts agree that the Bulldogs junior was a prodigious talent.
Only last weekend, in Penrith’s preliminary win against Cronulla, Luai caught the left centre in a moment of ‘laziness’.
The words are too explicit for the three-time winning five-eighth to share with this masthead.
“I probably can’t tell you exactly what I said, it went like ‘bleep, you bleep, bleeeeep!,” Luai laughed.
“It was just a moment against the Sharks, he stopped moving when the ball was in the air.”
“I don’t really look at it as a spray anymore, I know he does and some of the younger boys do. But I just want to see my brothers at their best.”
Whether it’s a spray, a heated exchange or verbal stoush, the semantics don’t matter.
Not when Alamoti, according to coach Ivan Cleary, produced his best ever performance since joining the club in last Saturday’s grand final qualifier against the Sharks.
“He’s made me the player that I am today,” Alamoti said.
“He’s got a spray in him every single game and I get one every single game. I love it, it keeps me in the game. I don’t see it as a bad thing, he is always holding me accountable.
“To be honest, it’s the best thing that has happened to me.
“He’s pushed me in a big way out on the field and he is getting the best out of me. That’s definitely something I have needed in my career, so I have a lot of respect for him in that regard.
“He’s kind of like our father figure on the left edge.”
Luai’s emergence as a leader, both at club and Origin level, has earned the 27-year old plenty of praise and plaudits in 2024.
It was only last year, when he and former teammate Jaeman Salmon were caught on camera having a heated exchange after a loss to Brisbane in round one.
While Luai concedes that the field was the ‘wrong place and wrong time’ to have it out with Salmon, the five-eighth is unapologetic about wanting to push his teammates to be their best.
“For Pauly, to say that he sees me as a father figure is humbling,” Luai said.
“I do see it as tough love, there was some footage of me and Jaeman Salmon last … those are those tough conversations that everyday people don’t see.
“I look at Paul, he’s a young dude with the world in front of him. I see his immense potential. If not me, who else is going to keep him accountable?
“I think it also helps me be accountable in my own game and my own performances, making sure I am doing every little thing I can to be great, to make sure I’m keeping it real.”
But even before Luai was showing Alamoti tough love, the youngster’s father Soane was laying down the law ensuring his son never shirked his responsibilities – whether it was at training or at school.
“Coming here, to experience that, it wasn’t so much a shock to me because my dad has always been that figure that has shown me tough love. My old man has always been hard on me,” Alamoti said.
“Growing up and coming through, he was the one that had all those tough conversations that when you’re a teenager or a bit younger you don’t want to hear. And I didn’t want to hear them, but he still had those conversations with me.”
Alamoti, a Bankstown Bulls and Milperra Colts juniors, was regarded as the next big thing at Belmore but struggled to fulfil his potential with the Bulldogs during his rookie season in the NRL last year.
Coach Cleary jumped at the opportunity to sign Alamoti, who had fallen out of favour at the Bulldogs, for 2024.
At the time, Alamoti wasn’t guaranteed a starting spot and he had some doubts about being stuck behind Taylan May in the pecking order.
May was eventually cut by the club midway through the season and now Alamoti is 80 minutes away from being a premiership winner at just 20-years old.
Soane’s intuition as a father proved far wiser than any of Alamoti’s doubts.
“He said yes straight away, when Penrith wanted me,” Alamoti said.
“He knew from a father’s point of view the opportunity that comes with this club and all the benefits.
“He knew it was what I needed. He saw something that I needed at the time that I didn’t see.
“He wanted me to sign straight away. He saw something in this opportunity, something that I didn’t see, so that’s pretty special.”
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Originally published as NRL 2024: The Penrith Panthers tough love that has Bulldogs junior Paul Alamoti 80 minutes away from a premiership
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