New footage reveals twist in Jarome Luai’s alleged Grand Final ‘kick’

A new camera angle has set the record straight on one of the NRL Grand Final’s most contentious moments.

Fresh footage has emerged of one of the NRL Grand Final’s most contentious moments, proving Jarome Luai’s ‘kick’ on Isaiah Papalli was nothing more than the slightest brush of the chin.

The sideline TV angle of the moment appeared to show the Panthers playmaker walking into the ruck area and blatantly kicking out at the Parramatta second-rower as he lay on Panthers winger Brian To’o.

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The incident was not replayed on Channel 9’s live broadcast and wasn’t penalised by the on-field officials.

However fans were immediately blowing up on social media while Eels star Ryan Matterson sensationally took aim at the perceived ugly act days later while complaining about his $4000 crusher tackle fine.

Watch the right foot kick from Luai and not picked up in the first tackle @FOXNRL@NRLonNine#nrlgrandfinal#grub#nrlpantherseelspic.twitter.com/2EDIEd5bQw

— SixOverCoverAgainstTheSpin (@toddyor73) October 2, 2022

“Considering Jarome Luai is kicking players and he didn’t get cited. It makes you think ‘Where is this game heading?’” Matterson told AAP.

The sideline camera angle appeared to show a kick from Luai. Image: Nine

The reverse angle of the Jarome Luai "kick" shows Luai barely made contact. Pic: Channel 9

Days later the new camera angle obtained by Sport Confidential has vindicated Luai and proven the match officials correct.

The grand final winner has bigger problems on his hands however with his place in Samoa’s World Cup team for the early rounds of the tournament under threat due to an offensive social media post made in the hours after Penrith’s victory in the NRL decider.

Early on Monday morning, Luai shared an image to Instagram of himself celebrating in the dressing rooms alongside Penrith teammate Jaeman Salmon, captioning the post: “My n****.”

The 25-year-old five-eighth deleted the post seven hours later.

The NRL integrity unit is aware of the controversial social media post while league management has not launched an investigation, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Jarome Luai posted an offensive term to Instagram after the Grand Final.

But the post could be set to cost Luai dearly with veteran journalist Paul Kent noting the indiscretion could see him miss games for Samoa.

“It’s a well known racial term which Penrith claim is a term of endearment, which is ridiculous,” Kent said on NRL 360.

“Honestly, at some point these blokes have got to be asked to act like men. They’re carrying on like 16-year-old schoolboys the way they’re caring on with this victory.

“Good on them, they’re so good but the line has gone too far and stuff like that, and another bloke called a player a name in a game last year and he got out for four weeks if you remember that.

“He (Luai) runs the risk, he’s a proud Samoan and he’s going to play for Samoa in the World Cup and he’s a big chance of missing games now because again he got carried away with his own greatness.”

In a separate Instagram post, Luai posed alongside the coveted Provan-Summons Trophy with the caption “daddy loves you” in a suspected jab at the Eels.