Jarome Luai has declared Penrith his home as the back-to-back premiers begin hatching a plan to retain both their star five-eighth and fullback Dylan Edwards beyond 2024.Luai and Edwards have been critical to the Panthers' sustained success over the past four seasons but both are free to negotiate with rival clubs for 2025 come November 1.Penrith have been hard-pressed to keep all of their big-name players in recent seasons, losing Viliame Kikau, Matt Burton, Kurt Capewell, Brent Naden and Api Koroisau to cashed-up rivals craving premiership experience.Retaining both Luai and Edwards looms as their biggest challenge yet, not least because of the fullback's recent performances.After years of flying under the radar, Edwards is in career-best form, with pundits suggesting he would be in the frame for representative selection this year if NSW and Australia captain James Tedesco was injured.Defecting to a rival would almost certainly earn the fullback an increase on his reported current salary of $500,000 per year - less than half the pay-packet of million-dollar rival fullbacks Tedesco, Tom Trbojevic and Kalyn Ponga.
For his part, Luai is the incumbent Blues five-eighth at State of Origin level and reportedly earns around $700,000 per season on his current contract, signed before the Panthers won either of their premierships.Despite both being poised for increases, coach Ivan Cleary last week insisted he was confident the Panthers could retain both men beyond 2024, pointing to their longstanding connection with the club as local juniors.Luai has not broached the topic with his teammate but felt confident the pair was on the same page."This is our home and we've had a lot of success here," Luai told AAP."Hopefully they can keep us both. I'd love to stay, this is my home."I think we just leave it in the hands of our managers and Penrith themselves."Far from feeling threatened by the prospect of jostling with Edwards for a pay-rise, Luai is cheering for his teammate's upswing in form.Edwards scored four tries in the round six defeat of Manly, the most for a Panther in any game since July 2020, and is ranked second in the league for tackle busts through seven rounds."He's killing it, like he's always done," Luai said.
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