{"id":288301,"date":"2025-11-16T13:12:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T13:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/288301\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T13:12:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T13:12:15","slug":"eels-confirm-immediate-contract-call-for-zac-lomax-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/288301\/","title":{"rendered":"Eels confirm immediate contract call for Zac Lomax – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Parramatta Eels<\/a> have all but confirmed State of Origin<\/a> outside back Zac Lomax<\/a> will head to Rugby 360 after granting him a release from the remainder of his playing contract.<\/p>\n

Lomax has been one of the most heavily linked named to the rebel rugby union competition, which is promising payments to players in excess of $2 million per year.<\/p>\n

It’s a number the NRL<\/a> and their clubs simply can’t match under the current terms of the salary cap, with Brisbane Broncos<\/a>, NSW Blues<\/a> and Samoan prop Payne Haas<\/a> the biggest name reportedly in talks with the Saudi Arabian-backed competition.<\/p>\n

The Eels, in a statement, confirmed they had released Lomax so he could pursue other opportunities outside of the NRL<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“The Parramatta Eels<\/a> can confirm that Zac Lomax<\/a> has been granted an immediate release from his playing contract to pursue opportunities outside the NRL<\/a>,” the Eels wrote in the statement.<\/p>\n

“The Club would like to thank Zac for his contribution during his time with the Eels in 2025 and we wish him all the best for the future.”<\/p>\n

The Eels had signed Lomax in a major coup after he was released from the St George Illawarra Dragons<\/a> at the end of 2024.<\/p>\n

The outside back, who had been transformed into a winger under the coaching of Shane Flanagan<\/a> at the Red V, wanted to play in the centres, but turned out for New South Wales on the wing again in 2025.<\/p>\n

Lomax will now likely be among the first wave of signings for R360, which is expected in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

The NRL<\/a> will also now be in a tricky spot over whether to enforce their ten-year ban for players signing with the competition.<\/p>\n

The NRL<\/a> and Australian Rugby League<\/a> Commission released a statement a number of weeks ago confirming any players or agents signing, or negotiating, with unrecognised competitions would be banned from the NRL<\/a> and other ARLC-affiliated competitions for ten years.<\/p>\n

Lomax had been signed through to the end of 2028 with Parramatta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Parramatta Eels have all but confirmed State of Origin outside back Zac Lomax will head to Rugby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-288301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}