Storm chairman Matt Tripp took aim at Parramatta for what he saw as deliberately taking the dispute public, accusing the club of running to the media to control the narrative around the Zac Lomax saga. Tripp suggested the Eels chose headlines over resolution, portraying Lomax and Melbourne as acting in bad faith while ignoring the broader context — including the fact Parramatta would have gained adequate compensation for a player who had already vacated the club.
Tripp said Melbourne attempted to handle the matter quietly and professionally, offering compensation to avoid escalation, only for Parramatta to harden its stance and air the issue publicly. In his view, the decision to brief the media and frame the Storm as "villains" was unnecessary and misleading, turning a solvable contractual dispute into a drawn-out public fight that Parramatta itself helped inflame.
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good point!
Surely their needs to be an investigation by the NRL.
Lomax signed R360 before seeking any release- isn't that a 10 year ban?
What we do know now, Your Honour, from documents that have been produced under subpoena, is that he entered into a provisional contract with R360 conditional upon him securing a release from the plaintiff (the Eels), prior to securing that release from the plaintiff,” Mr Moses told the court.
Plus Storm - getting into an ew contract prior talking to Eels.
Mr Moses said had been discovered that a preliminary version of the agreement had been placed on the NRL portal prior to the Storm approaching Parramatta.
Titan, it would be awesome if some journalist of actual integrity would ask V'Landys how his 10 year ban does NOT apply to Lomax IF these court filings turn out to unearth a preliminary contract was signed with R360.
Storm poach Ryles from Roosters and promise him head coach duties, then renig and Ryles applies for an open head coaching position at Eels and Tripp whines the Eels poached Ryles?
Storm refused to release JAC but Tripp whines that the Eels, who released Lomax, won't roll over and torch their own clauses in that release?
Pezet signed late October 2025. Lomax had already informed the Eels as early as July 2025 that he wanted out to R360 and was officially released mid-November 2025. Now Tripp wants to claim the Eels were secretly trying to dump Lomax, who was contracted until end of 2028, so they could secure a backup half until the end of 2026? Is Tripp actually a comedian?
Prof you say, "Now Tripp wants to claim the Eels were secretly trying to dump Lomax, who was contracted until end of 2028, so they could secure a backup half until the end of 2026?"
Im curious... did Tripper actually say this somewhere in print?? He ain't a comedian but a slanderous dip shit if he said that ha and I hope we take him on those ridiculous words. Omg storm effing up all over the place here now like pure brats haha
Yep, Macy, Tripl claimed that the Eels actually wanted to free up cap space to sign Pezet. Tripp's board should probably fire him for gross incompetence in public statements
https://www.news.com.au/sport/nrl/crucified-storm-boss-slams-eels-o...
Yep thanks Prof I followed up after your posts. Seriously Trip has sounded like quite a mess. And so does Gillis. Trip says Lomax said something like "no way" when first asked about discussing with Storm. Giles said the exact opposite. Something like when storm contacted they didn't muck around haha.
interesting situ just keeps getting better :)
Also , just read your earlier response re sports lawyers comments :(
for me, my only real concern for us is exactly what is "adequate compensation" interpreted as? Can storm say they have applied adequate compensation? See they upped their offer of more moola, not a bad move by them to make their offer seemingly more 'adequate'. They know full well thst more money was not what we wanted😡.We did say " adequate value to our football program" but couldn't this be twisted to mean adequate financials...
Mace, they do sound like a reactive mess, throwing spaghetti about hoping for something, anything, to stick and generate some empathy for their cause...that's not gonna happen...
We are under their skin and I am well stocked with popcorn. With a little luck we will put damage on Melbourne and V.landys. I don't buy this nrl schmemRL bullshit, this support of Melb is driven by Mr Brylcream Combover personally and i would like to shake his shit about a bit and leave a trail for the white-ants to follow.
Not paywalled...here it is Randy
https://www.news.com.au/sport/nrl/crucified-storm-boss-slams-eels-o...
...and it lives. Thanks Mace, I'll read it, but news ltd can still go eat their own arse
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