Dragons winger Zac Lomax is set to sign a multi-million dollar deal with the Parramatta Eels to join the club until 2028.
Lomax’s management and Parramatta officials are finalising the terms of the deal, which is expected to be worth $2.6 million over the four years of the contract.
Lomax will join the Eels as a centre, but also has the ability to play wing and fullback as he has previously for the Dragons. The deal could be formally announced as early as next week.
The deal is not scheduled to begin until 2025, but the Eels haven’t given up hope of luring Lomax to the club this season. That will require agreement with the Dragons, who are chasing a suitable player as compensation.
Lomax last week had dinner at the western Sydney home of Eels coach Brad Arthur and has been impressed with the vision the club has sold to him.
Lomax has been released from the final two years of his contract with the Dragons, believed to be worth $850,000 in 2025 and $875,000 in 2026.
The Eels have been in discussions with the NRL about the salary cap ramifications with the club hellbent on not having Lomax go in the cap for any more than $650,000 a season.
Arthur told the Herald he had been impressed with the 24-year-old.
“I met with Zac at my home,” Arthur said. “We’ve got genuine interest and we want to bolster our squad. We always said we were short an outside back. He’s off contract for ’25.
“I was very impressed with him. He seems like a very mature young man who knows what he wants to get out of his life.
“At the moment, out of respect for Zac who has a game [on Friday night], and out of respect for the Dragons, we didn’t want to talk too much more about it. We’ve had the meeting and we’ve got interest, and once he finishes his game we will talk further next week about it.”
Lomax has expressed his frustration with being moved to the wing for the Dragons this season, but his issues seemed to stem long before Flanagan’s arrival at the club.
He asked for a release from his Dragons contract in pre-season, one of several times he has formally requested to leave the club stretching back to the tenure of former coach Anthony Griffin.
“There will be stories going around that we’ve had arguments,” Dragons coach Shane Flanagan recntly said. “There’s been none of that. We’ve had a lot of good conversations around it. As you can see with his football, he’s happy to be here and he’s putting the effort in. That’s all we can ask.
“Zac has made a decision that he wants to leave the club. The club has made a decision to let him go from the last two years. It’s not the first time this has happened and it’s not going to be the last. Zac is here for the rest of the year and hopefully this is the last time we speak about.”
Replies
Perfect deal, well done eels.
People can complain all they like. We need outside backs and this is a good start. Next, a hard running metre eating winger
In terms of the cap, if we inherit the full freight of the ridiculous value the dragons put on him, the joke is very much on us.
The deal falls over if that's the case. The Dragons can keep him...and pay $800k per year
They can't do that. Both parties agreed to the release so the terms of that contract are null and void.
Good contract, as long as we can pull the deal if NRL makes us wear the diff on our SC.
surely that would be a dragons issue if at all
You'd think so but that's not what's been reported thus far.
Good stuff... add a winger and then Clint Eastwood and we're ready to rock...
Clint Eastwood...at least he'd take no shit!
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