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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Chiefy (above) suggest the Storm might offer $500k as reasonable and the court might "dictate" the Eels to accept that as a fair amount.
Again this is a lawyer question, but while NSW courts can "read down" clauses in restraint of trade cases, I don't think this amounts to the court being able to redraw the contract/clauses? The court can narrow temporal or geographic clauses, so for instance they might say "requiring consent until the end of Lomax' original contract termination is too broad/long" and read it down to 1 year (just an example). But dictating "accept X cash" when no cash remuneration clause exists in the contract would be a redrawing of contract?
It's come out now that during negotiations with Melbourne, we put forward that they take Matterson too. 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
LOL much love and respect for Jim, you tha man.
$500k isn't a reasonable offer considering the value of Lomax being an Australian and state of origin player! The money is really of no value to the Eels! The real question is the fact that Lomax has attempted now for the 3rd time in as many years to break! The point in Question should be the legality of this whole issue not dollar value! If the Eels are forced to concede then the legal system is of no value, contracts are of no value and it sets a terrible precedent for all of Rugby League
Good short article from Paul Crawley on Fox about this ...
https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl-premiership/nrl-2026-zac-lomax...
Good to see a journalist calling it for what it is...
Media reports today that in 'discovery', the Eels have found that Lomax's team claim to have initiated contact with three diffrerent teams, the Raiders, Storm and Perth, "as potential landing points".
Proszenko, SMH, 6 Feb 2026 (link is via Archive Today to avoid paywall): https://archive.md/qXbYY
The article is by Proszenko, who apparently is an absolutely terrible writer unable to keep clear who is speaking about whom. The headline of the article is "Factually Incorrect", with the Raiders denying expressing interest in Lomax. Fair enough. But Proszenko writes "the Raiders were incensed with suggestions they ever had any interest in acquiring Lomax“. Proszenko quotes Raiders CEO Don Furner that any contact with Lomax "is absolute bullshit", with Furner being further cited saying the Raiders are niether interested in outside backs nor have cap space for Lomax.
The key here is that it reads like the Raiders are rebuking the Eels. But that is just Proszenko unable to write clearly enough, keeping 'subjects in view' as writers say.
Let's rewrite Proszenko's article while keeping subjects in view:
The Raiders would be right to be unimpressed if Lomax's team suggested to the Eels that the Raiders were interested in Lomax, because the Raiders have expressed no interest in Lomax at all. Furthermore, the Eels are correct to be unimpressed that Lomax's team was shopping Lomax around to NRL clubs prior to the Eels granting such permission, as the Eels' termination contract with Lomax expressly forbid such NRL-team-shopping without their prior consent.
FU Lomax, whose team thought a restraint of trade was to poke the bear, without realizing the Parramatta Club is the bear.
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