Source :- THE AGE NEWS
Some Wests Tigers officials only learnt about Jarome Luai’s trip to Port Moresby when photos were posted on social media of their captain at a golf tournament.
The Tigers’ $1.2 million-a-year marquee man asked if he could stay behind in Townsville on Sunday, and was granted permission after he passed a medical examination on a leg injury he suffered the night before in the 24-10 loss to the Cowboys.
A few hours after his teammates returned to Sydney, Luai was on a private jet to Port Moresby where he joined Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape at a golf tournament.
Sources with knowledge of the situation not authorised to speak publicly confirmed several Tigers officials were caught off guard by Luai’s late-season trip to the country he will call home from 2028.
The same sources confirmed Luai would return to Sydney to train with the Tigers on Tuesday, and will play against the Panthers on Sunday, which will double as his final game for the club before he moves on to Parramatta in 2027 then the PNG Chiefs in 2028.
On Monday morning, photos of Luai’s trip to PNG were posted on social media. He was greeted by Marape at the airport and PNG’s Post Courier newspaper reported Luai was about to become one of the country’s regional tourism ambassadors.
According to data from flight tracking website Flightradar24, Luai travelled from Townsville to Port Moresby with PNG charter operator Tropicair. The aircraft, which seats up to nine passengers, was dispatched from the PNG capital to collect him on Sunday morning.
Later in the day, Luai was a special guest at Royal Port Moresby Golf Club where he rubbed shoulders with PNG Open winner Josh Armstrong.
There was nothing stopping Luai from flying to Port Moresby in his own time, especially given the eight-day turnaround to the Tigers’ final game. Players were given two days off after the Cowboys game.
The brief visit proves just how close Luai has already become with Marape, who loves his nation’s golf championship.
Local podcaster Lawrence “Kamuna” Lahari spent the day recording footage of Luai and Marape, including Luai touching down on the jet after a flight lasting less than an hour from Townsville.
“Welcome home man,” Lahari says to Luai in the footage posted online. “How you been?”
“I’ve been good. I played last night, so I’m still a bit sore,” Luai says.
“What a game,” Lahari responds, before Luai says: “I know, we didn’t get the win, but the boys put up a good fight.”
Luai later met with Marape and discussed the similarities between PNG and Samoa – Laui has Samoan heritage – saying how he is “big on family, big on roots, where you come from, and who gave me the opportunity to be the man I am today.”
“I see PNG as like a brother or cousin to where we’re from – it’s all connected,” he tells Marape.
While watching the golf later in the day, there are some jokes made about the weather, before Marape asks Luai to play 18 holes with him.
Luai was still in PNG on Monday, where he visited a local Pepsi factory, and news crews captured workers mobbing the NRL star.
The four-time premiership winner’s big-money move to the Chiefs has been one of the stories of the season.
The Tigers granted him permission to fly to PNG earlier this year before the 19th NRL franchise secured him as its first marquee signing.
Fans, however, will be split over whether it was a good look for Luai to travel to PNG while still contracted to the Tigers, and with one match to be played in the season.
Nathan Cleary flew to Auckland on the weekend, but he was there to watch younger brother Jett make his NRL debut, not to actively promote a club and country he will not represent for 18 months, as Luai did.
There was a similar debate late last week involving Luai and the timing of him being unveiled as the face of Pepsi in Papua New Guinea.
“The moment the board allowed him to visit Papua New Guinea was the beginning of the end,” Tigers great Ben Elias said. “He’s come back, it was a circus, it’s still a circus, and this is the disastrous finale.”
Cashed-up PNG companies who table lucrative third-party deals to players that have signed with the Chiefs will be eager to use them to promote their business as much as possible in the next year, even if they are still at rival clubs.
Meanwhile, the NRL is expected to review comments made by Tigers coach Benji Marshall, who labelled some of the refereeing decisions in the loss to the Cowboys as “outrageous”. One of Marshall’s gripes was Luai being denied a 90-metre try after Api Koroisau was ruled to have slapped at Tom Mikaele’s hands, rather than tackle him in the lead-up.
