V’landys famously said he had concerns about “any competition that comes out of a cornflakes box”.

“There has been a run on cornflakes boxes – Coles and Woolies have run out,” V’landys said on Saturday.

“Zac and Ryan Papenhuyzen have signed no deals with R360, so of course they are welcome back to our game, absolutely they are. It’s sad they were hoodwinked by this mirage that was R360.

“Of course they are welcome back to our game. It’s sad they were hoodwinked by this mirage that was R360.”

Peter V’landys

“Administrating the game, you know what is required to run the game, how much revenue you need, and R360 were never going to get there. Their revenue model was flawed … there was no way they were going to be able to play their players.

“To be fair to R360, they’ve basically come out and said they don’t have enough money, which was our belief from day one.”

Papenhuyzen quit the Melbourne Storm a few weeks before Lomax split with the Eels, but the fullback said from the outset he was unsure what his next move was, and whether he would even continue in professional sport.

The Storm didn’t have anything to add on Papenhuyzen on Saturday.

Lomax was spotted training at the Wollongong gym of mixed martial arts star Alexander Volkanovski during the week, while he has also shown an interest in boxing.

The Eels trained for nearly three hours in front of devoted fans on a warm and blustery Saturday at Fairfield in western Sydney.

Mitchell Moses made a surprise early return to complete a few drills, while Junior Paulo was spotted on crutches after undergoing a clean out of his ankle. He is in no doubt for round one.

When asked whether Lomax would be welcomed back at the Eels, teammate Jack Williams said: “If he was to come back, we’d love it. He’s a great player, he’s an Origin player, a Test player, they’re hard to [replace] when they go.

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“He’s always a competitor in our team. If he ends up coming back, we’d welcome him with open arms.

“We didn’t really know too much about what was going on. It looks like he’s been mixing it up with a few different things. He was doing a bit of MMA [mixed martial arts] … boxing; we wish him all the best.”

Meanwhile, Angus Crichton remains committed to making the switch to rugby at the end of next year. Crichton has told his management he has no desire to play against the Sydney Roosters, which rules out a big-money move to the Perth Bears.