Panthers give Luai green light to test open market

The Penrith Panthers have given star playmaker Jarome Luai the green light to test the open market from November 1.

Under contract for the 2024 season, Luai is set to become the biggest free agent on November 1 as rival teams can negotiate with him for the 2025 season and beyond.

It has been previously revealed by several publications that the club is likely to offer him between $700,000-$800,000 a season - a price that sees the Samoan international earn way less than his market value.

On Friday, Luai held contract talks with both coach Ivan Cleary and the club's Chief Executive Matt Cameron, in which the Panthers reiterated their position and spending capacity, per the Sydney Morning Herald.

Their tight salary cap position comes due to them locking up several of their stars to big-money offers, including Nathan Cleary (estimated at $1.3 million per year), Dylan Edwards ($850,000), James Fisher-Harris ($950,000), Liam Martin ($750,000) and Isaah Yeo ($850,000).

As well as re-signing 2023 Grand Finalists Moses Leota (2027), Lindsay Smith (2026), Scott Sorensen (2026) and Brian To'o (2027).

“The club and Jarome have met,” Cameron told the Herald.

“Jarome is aware of the club's capacity moving forward. The club's main concern and priority is his health and recovery with him set to have surgery on Monday. Jarome is contracted until the end of the 2024 season, so we feel like there is no rush at this point in time.

“Jarome is a three-time premiership player who will obviously command interest on the open market and we have no problem with him investigating all his options if he needs to after the first of November.”

A three-time premiership player, Luai has been a key part of the Panthers' success, accompanying Nathan Cleary in the halves. He has also shown his usefulness at the representative level for the NSW Blues and Samoa - leading the latter to the Rugby League World Cup Final last year against Australia.

It is understood that Luai has been unable to sign with a new player agent for the past 90 days since terminating his contract with SFX. However, the termination ends on the weekend, with the five-eighth able to appoint a new agent from Sunday.

Sports agency Black Money has emerged as the frontrunner for his signature - a company that also looks after the likes of Latrell Mitchell, Jack Wighton, Cody Walker and Bradman Best.

The Herald has reported that if Luai signs a deal worth $800,000, handling it himself, he would save an estimated $192,000 over a four-year period.

In the past, coach Ivan Cleary has declared that Luai 'belongs with Penrith' and hopes that the jumping-and-skipping five-eighth stays put.

"He belongs with us, we belong with him – it's a good fit," Cleary told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"It's like a lot of our boys: if he really wanted to get as much money as he wanted to, he would probably get it.

"But I think we can come up with something that's very good for him. It's a good fit."

On the other hand, News Corp journalist Michael Carayannis believes the difference between what the Panthers are able to offer under a tight salary cap against that of another club could reach $300,000 per season.

“His situation at Penrith is that he could get $300k more on the open market per year... He could demand in excess of $1 million a year at another club,” Carayannis said on SEN Radio.

“It's a lot of money to leave on the table so Jarome will have the most interesting conversation around his future.

“There is that stigma around Jarome in that if you take him out of that Penrith system, how good does he look? That's the same for a lot of those Penrith players but I still think he would easily get over $1 million on the open market.”