‘He’s Batman and I’m Robin. I want to be Batman’

NSW coach Michael Maguire asked his players to leave their clubs at the door when they walked into Origin camp. For the first 20 minutes of a half-hour interview with this masthead, Jarome Luai does just that.

But his emotions get the better of him when the line of questioning moves towards his impending departure from Penrith, where he has spent his entire NRL career to date.

Apart from a press conference in January when he announced his decision to sign a five-year, $6 million contract with Wests Tigers starting in 2025, Luai has been reluctant to expand on his reasons for walking away from the all-conquering Panthers, and his partnership with the game’s most influential player, Nathan Cleary.

“He’s Batman and I’m Robin,” Luai says, choking back tears, inside the library of the Fairmont Resort where the Blues have based themselves in the week before Origin I.

Nathan Cleary and Jarome Luai celebrate victory in last year’s grand final, their third straight premiership win together.Credit: NRL Photos

“The time has just come for me to be my own Batman. Do you know what I mean? This combination that we have formed, it has been amazing. It’s been an amazing journey. [Would we be] the players [we are] today without each other? I know I’m not the player I am today without Nath.

“But I want to see how much I can grow and what I can achieve. When all is said and done, I want to see what I’m really made of. I don’t want to die wondering, you know? I reckon if I stayed at Penrith, in a couple of years I would have been thinking to myself, ‘What could I have done? Could I have changed the Tigers if I went there? Could I have been the guy to do it?’

“I didn’t want to finish my career thinking that way, living with regret. I’ve won premierships and I think now’s a good time to test myself and see how good I am.”

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In the past 12 months, Luai has been on a journey of self-discovery. He has changed management companies, signed that life-changing deal to join the Tigers and embarked on a challenge to find “peace” in his life.

The trigger for change was a social media post after his last outing in a NSW jersey.

Jarome Luai ahead of game one.Credit: James Brickwood

NSW had just lost game two, and with it the 2023 series. Luai had been sent off for a tussle with Reece Walsh in the dying stages of the Maroons’ 32-6 victory.

As NSW followers licked their wounds and recriminations began to fly on social media, Luai took to Instagram, posting, “chill, all you idiots have work tomorrow morning. We go again”. The backlash was swift and fiery, and Luai regrets his emotional response.

Little did he know he would have to wait another 350 days to “go again” for NSW. If it hadn’t been for a spate of injuries to NSW’s halves options, that social media put-down could have been his final contribution as an Origin player.

On Wednesday night, Luai gets the chance to atone, once again representing the fans who took his attack so personally last year.

Jarome Luai and Reece Walsh lock horns during Origin II last year before both were sent from the field. Credit: Getty

“I responded out of anger. I want to make amends for that,” he said. “I’ve gotten to reflect a lot about it, especially while that game three was being played without me. I’m not proud with how I dealt with that. I was a bit angry and a bit emotional about it. But I think, in a way, that just shows a bit of humanity.

“I don’t want winning the fans back to be a motivation of mine. I want them to see my passion for the jersey. I can draw that line of connection with them and feed off their passion for the jersey and wear it with pride. Passion for me is home and family. That’s what the blue jersey is for me. This is where I grew up. It’s my childhood.

“Those late nights out there on the streets as kids playing touch footy, pretending to be this Blues player or that Blues player. I’m sure everyone else in NSW experienced that as well. That’s what I want to play for; their childhoods, their home towns, and just show that passion out there.”

Luai struggled to deal with the abuse from NSW fans – including death threats –following game two and his incendiary social media post.

It was eye-opening for Luai, who started writing about his emotions in a journal most nights.

“I want peace,” he said. “And then when I find it, I want to protect that any way I can. In previous times, I’ve always wanted to look at my phone and check what people are saying. Searching my name and checking for articles … I knew there was a problem.

Jarome Luai with daughter Akira after clinching a place in the 2022 grand final.Credit: Getty

“I’ve realised that no matter what you find, it’s not going to leave you with a good feeling. It wasn’t like someone told me that. Because people who know me know I was always that guy who didn’t really give an ‘F’ about anyone else’s opinions. I needed to see it for myself, and that’s all been part of my maturity and growth, to find balance and peace in my life.

“I don’t have to change, it is just about portraying my message better. The way I hold myself in public, the way I speak. I think any mistake that we [players] do, being under the spotlight, it’s going to get a lot more attention on it and our mistakes are going to just flow on to the people who are close to us as well. So I’ve made those mistakes and my family has been affected. Having kids, I don’t want any of my mistakes to affect them.”

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Luai has shown that when his emotions are heightened, he can react abruptly. It’s part of what makes opposition teams hate him, and his teammates love him.

But, as was the case after game two last year, it often leads to him being trapped in the spotlight, preventing him finding the balance he now seeks.

At the end of last year, when Panthers coach Ivan Cleary said rival clubs would be taking a risk if they offered Luai more than $1 million a season to be their chief playmaker, given his inexperience in the No.7 role, he wasn’t happy.

Jarome Luai and coach Ivan Cleary after Penrith’s 2023 grand final triumph.Credit: Getty

Luai’s not-so-cryptic “know your worth” post on Instagram the next morning spoke to his heartbreak, and he admits he felt betrayed.

“When he first said that, I thought it was a shot at me,” he said. “But I think it was a way for him to sort of try and fend off other clubs. It was his strategy to try and keep me at the club. We laugh about it now. It’s all part of the journey, man. Footy’s a business, at the end of the day.

“If it was up to ‘Coach’, he would give us all what we’re worth. That’s just the nature of the salary cap, unfortunately. He was just doing his best, in a way, as well. So I don’t resent him in any way, shape or form. I’m just trying to love my rest of the time at the club. The last ride, bra.”

Luai is under no illusion as to the size of the task awaiting him at the Tigers. He also had the chance to join Cameron Ciraldo’s Canterbury revolution, and with the Bulldogs improving by the week, it could be assumed Luai would harbour at least some regret at having opted instead for Benji Marshall’s stuttering Tigers rebuild. Not so, he says.

“Hell nah, I’m a man of my word, brother. I’m a man of my word,” he said. “I’m actually excited about it. I said it before the year started, regardless of how these guys go, I’m going to make sure I’m able to bring something to that team and make sure it’s positive. To be honest, I thought I was going there [Bulldogs]. They had [former Panthers] Critta [Stephen Crichton], Burto [Matt Burton], Ciro [Ciraldo] and Kiks [Viliame Kikau] there.

Jarome Luai during Magic Round this year.Credit: Getty

“But I wanted to go somewhere I was uncomfortable. The real challenge is, ‘Can I do it on my own?’ I was speaking to my dad about it, and we agreed that if I left Penrith, the Bulldogs would be a good fit for me. I would be comfortable there. I didn’t want to be comfortable. I wanted the real challenge.”

Challenges don’t get much bigger than Wednesday night’s Origin opener, knowing Mitchell Moses is waiting in the wings for a Blues recall in game two.

Gratitude. Opportunity. Leadership. They are some of the words Luai wrote into his journal the night he was handed the Blues No.6 jersey for game one.

“I also wrote, ‘Control the narrative’,” Luai said. “If I can do it here, I can do it anywhere.”

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