First went Apisai Koroisau. Now it looks like Jarome Luai could join him, with the five-eighth on the verge of joining the former Panthers hooker at the Tigers in 2025.
For now Penrith’s focus will remain on shooting for a fourth-straight title and sending Luai out a winner in the process, should he sign on the dotted line and leave the foot of the mountains.
But in the background a three-way battle for Luai’s vacant five-eighth jumper could bubble away in the 2024 season.
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Luai and Nathan Cleary, as it stands, already have built a record-breaking partnership having won 68 of 77 NRL games — the 88 per cent win record being the highest for any halves combination, in the Origin era, to have started at least 14 games together.
Now Cleary, who first combined with Luai at SG Ball in 2015, is facing the prospect of no longer having his longtime halves partner alongside him.
It will be a fresh challenge for the Clive Churchill medallist without Luai and the “sixth sense” the pair had developed over the years.
Here, foxsports.com.au looks at the three contenders to replace Luai in 2025 should he sign with the Tigers along with the potential targets Penrith could look at on the open market.
BRAD SCHNEIDER
They did it with Sean O’Sullivan and then with Jack Cogger. Have the Panthers done it again?
Maybe — and what makes the signing of former Raiders playmaker Brad Schneider even more exciting is the fact he is only 22 years old.
In other words, if Schneider makes the most of his opportunity at Penrith in the next two years it could very well be a long stay for the Hull KR halfback.
Schneider is one of many NRL players to make the switch to the Super League, although the fact he did it so young speaks volumes to how locked in he was on what he needed at that point of his career.
In Schneider’s case, it was a chance to not just develop his game but also his leadership in a more prominent role.
So, within a week of receiving a call from his manager he was on the plane to England.
“It’s probably one of the best things I’ve done,” the young playmaker, who only played one NRL game for the Raiders last season, told NCA Newswire.
“I definitely recommend it to other players, especially as a halfback and how young I was, to go straight in the team and be a leader helped grow my confidence massively.
“I think my leadership changed more than anything.
“I was straight into a team that needed a halfback, but there were two ways I could have gone about it.
“I could have been really quiet and just been there for the ride, but I said to myself that I’m here to do a job, so I took the opportunity with both hands.”
Schneider did just that from the outset, kicking the game-winning field goal in his debut for Hull KR and returns to the NRL with the kind of experience he simply would not have got playing in reserve grade for Canberra.
Of course, there is every chance Schneider could find himself back in the NSW Cup for the Panthers too but he has the versatility to push for a bench utility role right away.
Otherwise, both O’Sullivan and Cogger were quickly thrown into starting roles in the past two seasons and Schneider’s time playing in the Super League has him well prepared should injury strike again.
“The last two halfbacks that have been here have gone on to have success at other clubs,” Schneider said.
“And that’s down to the Panthers because their development here was great so they grew as players. That’s why I’m really keen to be here so I can learn from people like Nathan Cleary.
“I’m always shooting for the top 17, but at the moment I’m just really keen to learn from these guys and their system.
“That’s one of the things you’ve got to be open-minded to – playing anywhere in this team – and that’s something I’m more than happy to do.”
DAINE LAURIE
Laurie, who came up through the grades in Penrith’s SG Ball, Jersey Flegg and NSW Cup teams before making his NRL debut in 2020, is back at the foot of the mountains.
And if the Panthers are after a like-for-like replacement for Luai, Laurie is the obvious choice.
The 24-year-old played one game at fullback and three off the interchange for the Panthers in the latter stages of the 2020 season before suiting up at five-eighth for the Tigers in eight of his 49 games at the club.
Laurie, like Luai, is more of an instinctive playmaker who can play in and outside of structure, with a combination of speed and fancy footwork that makes him evasive in space.
Laurie’s size was his biggest drawback, regardless of whether he was playing fullback or five-eighth, impacting his ability to either make metres through contact or defend in the front line.
The latter would obviously be of greater concern for Penrith when it comes to Laurie’s prospects as the team’s long-term option in the halves, although given he has signed for just one year the Panthers aren’t locked into anything anyway.
What could be interesting is where Laurie figures should he start the season in reserve grade as opposed to playing a utility role off the bench.
Trent Toelau, who won Melbourne’s Under-20s Darren Bell medal for player of the year, impressed as Penrith’s first-choice halfback in the NSW Cup side last season.
Toelau himself could be a smoky of sorts if he continues to impress, having flashed his playmaking potential in 2023 and in particular his short passing game close to the line.
Toelau is on a train-and-trial deal for 2024 and if he maintains the starting halfback spot it would leave Jack Cole and Laurie fighting it out for the five-eighth jumper.
Cole could shift to the centres as he did at certain points in the 2023 season but that would mean denying him valuable experience playing in the halves, should the 20-year-old be part of Penrith’s future plan in the halves.
Laurie is obviously versatile himself and may well end up figuring somewhere else in the backline too, especially with the loss of Stephen Crichton seeing Sunia Turuva and Taylan May take on more prominent roles in Penrith’s first-grade side in 2024.
JACK COLE
The fact that Penrith will be able to keep Luai for another year before he potentially heads to the Tigers gives the club an extra season to see what they have in Cole.
The versatile 20-year-old, who was upgraded to Penrith’s NRL squad at the start of 2023, is an Orange CYMS junior and could well become the latest success story out of the club’s country contingent.
Cole has taken a long road — both figuratively and literally — to put himself in the position for this kind of opportunity, having often made the six-hour round trip from Orange to Penrith to join his teammates on a Friday afternoon for training while coming through the grades.
All of that is to say that Cole could be the latest rising star to emerge from Penrith’s production line, having fast improved since his first full season with the club in 2019 while playing in the Harold Matthews Cup.
Cole was selected for NSW’s Under-19s side in 2022 and capped off his standout season with an NRL debut against the Cowboys, later also named Jersey Flegg Cup Player of the Year.
Cole played a key role in Penrith’s premiership-winning Jersey Flegg and NSW Cup teams too, eventually making the transition to more of a full-time role in reserve grade in 2023.
There Cole, who initially played fullback in junior football before making the switch to the halves when he arrived at Penrith, also spent time in the centres.
Sound familiar? Dubbo product and now Bulldogs five-eighth Matt Burton followed a similar path and shares many similarities with Cole.
Both Cole and Burton never seemed too fazed or caught up in the moment while coming through the grades, taking the right option even if it isn’t necessarily the flashiest play.
Cole is also a strong defender and runner, which makes him an appealing option both in the centres and at five-eighth alongside Cleary, who obviously has a strong running game of his own but is more than capable of taking on the majority of the kicking duties.
Even if the Panthers don’t think Cole is quite ready to replace Luai right away it is not like they need to rush him in anyway.
The shrewd signings of O’Sullivan and Cogger in recent years prove Penrith can always fill the void in the short-term while giving a player like Cole a bit more time to develop his game in reserve grade.
But one more year may be all Cole needs anyway, especially given the way he has grown in confidence playing in a NSW Cup team at Penrith that is full of first grade experience.
ANY OPTIONS ON THE MARKET?
While the Panthers have plenty to work with in Schneider, Laurie and Cole, they may also go to the open market to fill the void at five-eighth.
After all, all three players are still quite young and so it wouldn’t surprise to see Penrith look for a more experienced option in the 2024 season, even if that player wasn’t locked in for a starting role right away.
A look at players off-contract at the end of 2024 doesn’t provide a whole lot of options though — at least when it comes to consistent, proven commodities in the NRL.
Of course, both Ezra Mam and Tom Dearden are two of the biggest free agents to monitor but Mam already looks set to re-sign with Brisbane while Dearden will likely spark a bidding war.
Penrith though don’t seem like the kind of team that wants or needs to engage in something like that and it unlikely the Panthers would be able to anyway given the money tied to some of their other bigger names.
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Should Luai join the Tigers you would have to think that raises some questions over Adam Doueihi’s future at the club, with the five-eighth off-contract at the end of 2024.
Doueihi though suffered a third ACL tear earlier this year so any team interested in his services would first want to see how the 24-year-old looks when he is back on the field before making any offers.
Newcastle’s Tyson Gamble could be another interesting name to watch, especially if new recruit Cogger usurps him for a starting role next season.
As for younger options with plenty of upside, it is hard to look past Gold Coast halfback Tom Weaver, who had his first taste of the NRL this year.
Gold Coast’s long-term spine still remains somewhat of a mystery and the arrival of Des Hasler could only shake things up further.
And finally, while not off-contract until the end of the 2025 season, could the Panthers look to reunite with O’Sullivan should the Dolphins make a splash for a marquee halfback at some point?
O’Sullivan himself is still only 25 years old and has already had success at the foot of the mountains with the same core group.
