Rugby Australia to target top NRL talent - Lomax case settled

[Barney Stubble]

Gee Zomax blew 800k, talk about "Doing a Lomax"

new aussie vernacular
will be up there with falcon

 

[Wb1234]

Annoys me that Rugby Union get another Rugby League player to market themselves with because League can't help but argue between themselves. We are our own worst enemy.

We need every advantage this year to get a record broadcast deal. Giving Union a leg up doesn't help which is why PVL wanted him to stay.

He’s a winger

 

[Vee]

Why not ask for a transfer fee like the Eels did for Melbourne? Parramatta didn't have to give him away for free. They are happy to roll over for Rugby Union but were happy to spend money to fight the Storm and NRL.


R360 already came out and said they had no intertest in players who were already under contract because they didn't want to deal with the legal costs. So Parramatta could have easily said no or negotiated a transfer instead of just releasing him for nothing.


I absolutely think Parramatta look like fools here. Melbourne gave them a completely acceptable offer but the Eels wanted to play hardball thinking they could get a better deal elsewhere. I also think 2009 definitely played a part here.

Now they get nothing at all and League loses another star player to Rugby Union just as they are trying to negotiate a new broadcast deal. Club self interest rules again over what's best for the sport.

You can disagree with me all you want but that's how I see it.

That's okay. You can be wrong.

 

[newc18]

He’s a winger

He's a NSW and Australian rep player. I get trying to downplay his abilities because he's left but he was still a star player.

That's okay. You can be wrong.

I figured I would be in the minority here but I really couldn't care less. In my opinion Parramatta look like fools getting nothing in return and letting him go to a rival sport.

The sport is better off with Lomax in it. PVL understood that. If the Eels could have actually been reasonable, he would still be in the sport.

 

[Chins]

He's a NSW and Australian rep player. I get trying to downplay his abilities because he's left but he was still a star player.


I figured I would be in the minority here but I really couldn't care less. In my opinion Parramatta look like fools getting nothing in return and letting him go to a rival sport.

The sport is better off with Lomax in it. PVL understood that. If the Eels could have actually been reasonable, he would still be in the sport.

He's maybe a top 50 player in the sport, maybe

 

[i0Nic]

I'd put him somewhere between 30-40 top players but probably somewhere like top 15-20 in terms of most marketable. He is a pretty marketable guy which is why he is even receiving this much exposure about it.

After your Walsh, Cleary, Munster, Ponga, Haas, Mitchell, Grant, Luai, Moses, JFH, AFB, Tino, Crichton, Yeo, To'o, Murray, Trbojevic, Tedesco.. he's probably next? Definitely somewhere in this mix of marketable players.

It's a shame for him I feel like he's made mistake, he was cementing his place in Origin, he signed with Red Bull, there was potential for him to be a big star. Now he will be a neville nobody in union and even if he makes Wallabies won't reach anywhere near the star power. And earning less to boot.

I feel like he'll wanna be back in the NRL after the world cup, but will be hard for him to prove himself and reach the same heights even if someone offers him a contract.

 

[Bazal]

He's a NSW and Australian rep player. I get trying to downplay his abilities because he's left but he was still a star player.


I figured I would be in the minority here but I really couldn't care less. In my opinion Parramatta look like fools getting nothing in return and letting him go to a rival sport.

The sport is better off with Lomax in it. PVL understood that. If the Eels could have actually been reasonable, he would still be in the sport.

I get it, you're dying on the hill of wrongness here...but I think you mean if the Storm had been reasonable. What does a transfer fee get Parra for the hole in the roster?

Again, you seem to be failing to grasp that Lomax AGREED to the ostensible non-compete condition of the release that requires Parra's consent for him to play elsewhere in the NRL.

If the Storm had made a reasonable offer to make up for the player we've lost on false pretenses, Lomax would be in purple and even more of a scumbag than he already is. Hell, Parra actually AGREED to give him consent when the Storm offered to take handbrake Matterson instead of giving a player, and that fell apart because Matterson wouldn't go

 

[Ian Douglas]

I don't think Lomax will make a material difference to the TV deal. Though it would've been fun to see him join the Storm and see that play out.

If anything the media coverage surrounding the Lomax saga shows just how popular the NRL is both on and off the field.

A record TV deal will happen irrespective of any player switching codes.

 

[Wb1234]

He's a NSW and Australian rep player. I get trying to downplay his abilities because he's left but he was still a star player.


I figured I would be in the minority here but I really couldn't care less. In my opinion Parramatta look like fools getting nothing in return and letting him go to a rival sport.

The sport is better off with Lomax in it. PVL understood that. If the Eels could have actually been reasonable, he would still be in the sport.

If they sign Cleary or Walsh sure I’d be worried

He’s destabilised two nrl clubs and isn’t happy playing in the position he’s suited for

Gorden Tallis says wingers are guys who hang around footballers

 

[i0Nic]

Yep NRL is top tier entertainment and drives eyeballs both on and off the field.

There are so many personalities and stories and drama. This is why a drive to survive series would do gangbusters and attract more people to the game and turn people from casuals to fans.

 

[Suitman]

In my opinion Parramatta look like fools getting nothing in return and letting him go to a rival sport.

The sport is better off with Lomax in it. PVL understood that. If the Eels could have actually been reasonable, he would still be in the sport.

Is it really? You are kidding.
Lomax is an absolute f**king nobody.
RL has lost players to Rugby before in worse times than this, particularly wingers, like Mat Rogers, Lote Tuquiri, Wendall Sailor and Israel Folau, and back in the days when Union was actually considered a major sport in Oz.
Let's not forget the greatest of them all, Semi Radradra, another loss to RL.

However, let's look at where Rugby is now compared to RL shall we?
They are a minnow. They struggle to gain a decent TV deal better than the A-League. Crowds are at their lowest point for decades. Their finances are propped up only by an occasional international tournament every decade or two.
I honestly don't get why you are so cut by Lomax going to rugby.
We've lost far better before and look where the two sports sit in the Australian sporting landscape at the moment.
Lomax can f**k off. The sooner the better.

 

[Foreign Legion]

new aussie vernacular
will be up there with falcon

Doing a Lomax is the opposite of doing a Steven Bradbury

 

[CAS]

Guy reading out a ARU prepared statement getting in all the right buzz words, see the world etc, Truly International etc, yet a few days ago he was whoring himself around the Storm, this guy has Zilch interest in been a wallaby and RU in general but would happily Suck the Teet of RU for the Money they are willing to give him, It will be spun as some enormous accusation, a winger, not even in the top 30 of current Aus RL players, a man willing to walk out of Contracts at the drop of a hat, expect a statement after 1 game saying, wow its so much more intense than RL, he dreamed of this all his life etc, etc

 

[Chimp]

In the grand scheme of things, Lomax going to RU doesn’t even cause a ripple into the future of the NRL - it’s 1 player. Yeah he’s a really good winger, but he’s also proven to be disloyal - a huge No No in team sport.
Also, despite him being one of the best wingers in the world based on talent and on-field performance, his 2 NRL clubs have both been happy for him to leave their club mid-contract - in my opinion, that says a hell of a lot about his character and the type of influence he’s having in the team environment, away from his game day individual performances.
The arguement that if the Eels are going to lose him to RU for nothing, they might aswell have let him join the Storm for $750k transfer fee doesn’t stack up - yes the Eels were happy to lose him, but they don’t want to strengthen a direct competitor (particularly one they despise - 2009) in the completion they’re playing in, without appropriate strengthening of their own team as part of the deal.
The Eels have done the right thing by their football team in 2026, and the right thing by the NRL as a whole in terms of proving players can’t just walk out and join another NRL team mid-contract, without their host clubs consent.

 

[mccarthyj367]

The Force are already in round 5 of a 16 week season and they are sit joint bottom. They get 5k crowds and the competition will be over for them by May 30.

He has hardly played the game, if ever seriously, so he won't be near Wallaby selection for some time.

If he's on $400k max I would be amazed. What a fall from grace.

 

[i0Nic]

He’s taking what he can get right now. He already turned down a similar offer from union to pursue the storm opportunity. Now he went crawling back to them. He thinks oh well at least I’ll play in the wallabies World Cup side. Which is not even a given but they’ll put him in there because of exposure.

 

[King hit]

I don’t know if it’s just me but this comment from him speaks so much

 

[Chimp]

He’s taking what he can get right now. He already turned down a similar offer from union to pursue the storm opportunity. Now he went crawling back to them. He thinks oh well at least I’ll play in the wallabies World Cup side. Which is not even a given but they’ll put him in there because of exposure.

It’s embarrassing for the RU lot - he clearly didn’t want to go there, was willing for a Court battle to stay in the NRL, and only when he’s lost that, does he go and accept their offer.
They’re like the 2/10 fat ugly bird in a nightclub - she’s there all night and ready to put out, but he’s spent all night chasing the 10/10’s, then the 5/10’s, and it’s got to the end of the night and he’s thought ‘ah, f*%k it, I’ll rattle the fat one’ rather than going home empty handed.

 

[CAS]

It’s embarrassing for the RU lot - he clearly didn’t want to go there, was willing for a Court battle to stay in the NRL, and only when he’s lost that, does he go and accept their offer.
They’re like the 2/10 fat ugly bird in a nightclub - she’s there all night and ready to put out, but he’s spent all night chasing the 10/10’s, then the 5/10’s, and it’s got to the end of the night and he’s thought ‘ah, f*%k it, I’ll rattle the fat one’ rather than going home empty handed.

The type who will offer you a feel around to share your Taxi home on a Night out when they have blown all their money and are miles from home with no credit on the phone.

 

[Foreign Legion]

Wallabies are the equivalent of a secret character you unlock in Street Fighter for the NRL... (too unlock the Wallabies NRL team you must complete the LOMAX)