Luai and Galvin collide once more in NRL’s never-ending contract saga

July 13, 2026 — 5:00am

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Jarome Luai will mark up directly opposite former halves partner Lachlan Galvin on Saturday night, bound by two of the most dramatic contract sagas in modern rugby league and separate NRL campaigns blown up by them.

Instagram posts, six-figure transfer fees, endless innuendo and, just for fun, a Provan-Summons Award nomination for a PR-friendly, post-game embrace between the pair, all feature in a made-for-NRL narrative between the playmakers, Tigers and Bulldogs.

That Luai and Galvin do the dance once more, with a loss for either surely the death knell on their respective seasons, is just further proof rugby league’s deities truly get comedy.

Luai has made his point via cryptic (and not-so cryptic) Instagram posts throughout his career, and over the weekend his father Martin left an ‘OK’ emoji on a post questioning how close the Tigers star and coach Benji Marshall still are.

The Bulldogs, meanwhile, are awaiting scan results on the nerve damage that floored Stephen Crichton against Canberra in a 40-16 thrashing that put Canterbury’s four wins from their past five games in perspective.

But the club is confident their skipper will avoid any long-term lay-off, just as he has in previous years when he’s lost feeling down his right arm from a seemingly innocuous tackle. Luckless........

© The Age