Martin Luai watched his son's first NRL game inside a prison cell. Even the guards treated him differently after that
Inside a Brisbane maximum security prison cell, listening on a radio he bought from commissary that very week, Martin Luai cried through every minute of his son's NRL debut."I've got you, Dad. This is for you."
Martin Luai and his daughter Alexia watch on at Panthers Stadium as Penrith knocked off the Eels last week thanks to a late try to Jarome."But I never blamed him. I never hated him for the situation we were in because what he did was for us. It was for our family. He did so much for me in my life. He sacrificed a lot for me to get to where I am today. I love my dad. The sadness I had was that he couldn't be there to see me make it given all the hard work we put in together.
Two tries, six goals, three try assists and a 36-4 win later, Martin went from prisoner to Jarome's dad in an instant. "You should’ve heard the unit. Half of them were cheering, half of them were telling me to shut up," Martin recalls.Credit:"I remember the next morning. Everyone was half asleep because I kept the whole unit up. Jarome made me famous inside. Once the guards all knew I was Jarome’s dad, everyone started teasing me that I was getting special treatment.
"All I did was touch him on his shoulder and he turned around, his eyes were bloodshot and he was still crying. I felt like shit after that. From that day forward, I pulled back a bit and tried not to be so hard on him. But I swear from that day on he changed. It lit a fire inside him and he never took a step back. He used it as motivation and his drive was like none other after that."No one at Penrith noticed much of a change in Jarome while his father was away.
Even though I had my reasons, there really isn’t any good enough reason to do what I did. When I did it at the time, I thought I wasn’t hurting anyone because I wasn’t doing it. I wasn’t the one putting it into their arms, but I was contributing to getting that stuff out there."While in prison, Martin had his Australian VISA cancelled as per regulations that state those who serve more than 12 months behind bars must reapply or face deportation.
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