NRL greats call out concerning Jarome Luai detail as Wests Tigers hit five players with breach notices

Greg Alexander, Brandon Smith and James Graham have all been left stunned after the Wests Tigers reportedly handed down five breach notices to players for returning to pre-season in unfit condition with a worrying Jarome Luai detail pointed out. Five unnamed Tigers players - not Luai - have reportedly been slapped with a breach notice having failed to meet the club's fitness conditions upon pre-season return, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

Coach Benji Marshall is clearly looking to turn the club's fortunes around after yet another wooden spoon in 2024 to make it three in a row. Wests Tigers fans have not had much to celebrate in recent years, but the signing of Penrith playmaker Luai has been a huge bonus and handed supporters hope.

Although Penrith legend Alexander and NRL commentator Andrew Voss have questioned what Luai would be feeling having joined a club in disarray. Luai is now enjoying his off-season having just finished up with Samoa on their tour of England.

The five-eighth has not joined Marshall and the players in pre-season yet as he enjoys his well deserved holiday. But news five players have reportedly not met club standards, only weeks after finishing last on the NRL ladder, would have got back to the four-time premiership winner.

Voss felt sorry for Wests Tigers fans and suggested the standards are clearly a worry at a club who are looking at a way to get off the bottom of the ladder. "If I am a Tigers fan waking up to this story, I am gutted. You've given us hope. We have Jarome Luai joining," he said on SEN Radio on Thursday.

And Alexander didn't hide his shock on Thursday morning and said the Wests Tigers are facing massive problems before the start of the 2025 season. "If there are five players that have turned up unfit, and two that have to front the board, if that is true what does it say about the attitude about those Tigers," he said.

"But when reading that, I said that can't be true. What player these days turns back up to training unfit and to the point where they are asked to front the board. Can you imagine that happening, it is not the 80s. I am going to say that is a massive problem for the side that ran last, last year."

Alexander added Luai's presence doesn't just magically turn around the club's environment and it was still up to the other players to improve if they don't want a fourth-straight wooden spoon. And this was a worry for Marshall and new recruits Sunia Turuva and Luai.

"A couple of good players is not going to solve the problems the Tigers had last year," Alexander added. "If it's attitude, you are done before it gets underway, it's over." He then added: "I would be stunned if it was any senior players."

Brandon Smith and James Graham blast the Tigers

Current Roosters star Smith and NRL great Graham were also critical of the situation. The Roosters No.9 said the senior players and Marshall would be stunned at the standards in pre-season after three-straight wooden spoons. Smith went as far as to say

Brandon Smith: "I'm you sure at the end of the season there would have been targets set. Training schedules sent out...These goals, those goals aren't just goals written down. 'This is where we want you at'...they are probably missing the target by some margin.

"If I'm (Tigers coach) Benji Marshall, geez I find it disrespectful on the players' behalf," Smith said on his podcast The Bye Round. "Three wooden spoons in a row, a new coach and you're going to come back out of condition. It begs the question, do you really want to play this game and what do you want to play for?

"Do you want to play it because it looks cool and you want to make money, or do you want to play it because this means something to you and you want to win championships and you want to do great things in this game? That is just not what it's telling me. Senior players like Jarome Luai, Api Koroisau, what are they thinking as well? "Are they thinking… are these players that we need around? Are these players that are going to help me win games and not be wooden spooners?"

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Graham claimed the Wests Tigers would be fuming at the development in pre-season training. "It is disrespectful," the retired NRL great added. "It's a slap in the face to the whole organisation to say we agreed on this and you failed on something, on a variable, that is totally and utterly in your control."

Luai won't return to training until next year having played international rugby league. The news could also come as a deterrent for Wests Tigers target Terrell May. The Roosters have decided that May does not fit into the club's plans and their decision to allow him to leave has left a number of rival NRL clubs circling, including the Tigers.