{"id":372799,"date":"2024-03-04T18:12:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-04T19:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=372799"},"modified":"2024-03-04T21:03:10","modified_gmt":"2024-03-04T21:03:10","slug":"emotional-luai-opens-up-on-looming-cleary-split","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=372799","title":{"rendered":"'Emotional' Luai opens up on looming Cleary split"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jarome Luai<\/a> believes one of the hardest parts about leaving the Panthers<\/a> will be the end \u2013 or at least a drastic scaling back \u2013 of his professional relationship with halves partner Nathan Cleary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Having played a crucial role in each of the club's three consecutive premierships, Luai will join the Tigers on a five-year deal worth $6 million from 2025.<\/a><\/p>\n

Luai and Cleary are among a string of homegrown Panthers talent who have risen through the junior ranks playing together.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Leniu's shock hotel threat revealed before altercation<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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READ MORE:\ufeff<\/strong> Coach backs Marnus despite grim form admission<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Now aged 26 and 27, they form probably the strongest halves combination in the NRL. It's a bond they also share off the field.<\/p>\n

\"Nathan<\/p>\n

"You know those drunk talks you sort of have after grand finals (or) after you've done something great," Luai told 9News.<\/p>\n

"We've have some pretty cool chats \u2013 D&Ms people call it. Those chats, I'll never forget.<\/p>\n

"Even just talking game plans in general, I'll never forget how much of a leader he is and how he makes me a better player.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"I don't want to get emotional now but he knows … I'm sure he knows."<\/p>\n

Lua's final season with the Panthers will commence on Friday night in a blockbuster against the Storm in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Having gone under the knife to fix his shoulder in the off-season, he insists he's feeling sharper than ever.<\/p>\n

"I don't know if I've ever been this switched on, wanting to make the most of every day and every moment," he said.<\/p>\n

\"Luai's<\/p>\n

That's good news for coach Ivan Cleary, who \u2013 having lost top-line talent including Api Koroisau, Matt Burton, Viliame Kikau, Kurt Capewell, and Stephen Crichton over the past three years \u2013 has noticed a trend among departing players.<\/p>\n

"I've definitely noticed that we've got history with the boys that have left \u2013 a lot of them have had that little something just to drive them a little bit more," Cleary said.<\/p>\n

"Certainly there are three or four that had the best seasons in the last year (with the club).<\/p>\n

"So I hope that trend continues."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jarome Luai believes one of the hardest parts about leaving the Panthers will be the end \u2013 or at least a drastic scaling back \u2013 […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":372801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372799"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=372799"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":372805,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372799\/revisions\/372805"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/372801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=372799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=372799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=372799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}