Luai in mood for more action as Cleary ponders resting stars

Panthers coach Ivan Cleary plans to rest several players next week but five-eighth Jarome Luai is not in the mood to be one of them after making a stirring return for the premiers on Friday night.

Luai showed no effects after a month on the sidelines with an MCL injury, carrying the ball 14 times as the Panthers piled on 46 points against the Warriors to celebrate their minor premiership in style.

Cleary indicated he will give some players a break next week, potentially most of his starting 13, with top spot locked in ahead of a hit-and-run mission against the Cowboys in Townsville.

The Panthers are likely to be without Api Koroisau (ankle) and Spencer Leniu (shoulder) for the trip, but Luai wasn’t keen post-match to join them.

“I want to play every week, if the body is right I’m putting my hand up to play,” Luai said.

“I’ll be back in Iv’s office this week letting him know I’m sweet to play. I’m sure the coach has got a plan so we’ll see what happens.

“I felt really good [returning], I was really confident throughout the week and got a lot of reps and the boys tested me pretty hard at training and I was really confident I could get through the game.

“I’m fresh, I took it as a bit of a blessing in disguise that I got a couple of weeks off. The body was a bit battered but very grateful going into the finals.”

Luai’s return was earlier than expected despite doing more damage than a similar injury in the middle of the season last year.

He’s spent the past fortnight training alongside Nathan Cleary as the pair get set for the finals in a fortnight.

“It was worse, I completely tore it this time [but] I wasn’t nervous. I’m a pretty quick healer so grateful to get back on the field and have a game with the boys.

“We’ve done a lot of reps, just me and him [Cleary] last week. There’s not many boys in rehab so we spent a bit of time together on the field just chatting about things.

“It’s been pretty good. People take it as a negative you’re out for a couple of weeks but we’re feeling really good coming into the finals.”

The Panthers celebrated their fourth minor premiership in front of 17,025 at BlueBet Stadium with the side set to return to the ground in the opening week of the finals.

Koroisau was confident he will be ready for the occasion after rolling his ankle.

"I'll be there. There's no issue there," he said after the match.

"I rolled on it a little bit but I wasn't going very fast so there wasn't much pressure there. It feels better now than it did before."