{"id":501496,"date":"2026-02-24T18:45:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T18:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/501496\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T18:45:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T18:45:33","slug":"zac-lomax-legal-wrangle-ends-storm-bosss-nrl-trip-to-vegas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/501496\/","title":{"rendered":"Zac Lomax legal wrangle ends Storm boss’s NRL trip to Vegas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melbourne Storm’s boss has traded a luxury Las Vegas executive box at the NRL<\/a> opening game for a spartan courtroom witness box as a stoush over Zac Lomax <\/a>comes to a head.<\/p>\n

Lomax jumped ship from the Parramatta Eels and is seeking to join the Storm for the 2026 season through a NSW Supreme Court lawsuit.<\/p>\n

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The Eels claim the winger knew he would need their permission before tearing up his $700,000-a-year contract and moving to another NRL club.<\/p>\n

The Origin representative was allowed to leave in November in a failed bid to join the R360 before the breakaway rugby union competition was postponed.<\/p>\n

One of the key witnesses in the lawsuit is Storm chairman Matt Tripp who had planned to watch the NRL opening game at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Saturday.<\/p>\n

His request to give evidence by audiovisual link from the USA during the trial, which starts on Monday, was rejected during a short court hearing on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Zac Lomax wants to join Melbourne Storm, but the Eels are holding him to the terms of his release last year\u00a0Brendon Thorne\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

He will have to give up a seat in the Las Vegas stadium’s luxury chairmans’ lounge for the triple-bill extravaganza and instead appear at the NSW Supreme Court to give evidence for hours on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Justice Francois Kunc noted Tripp could then be on a plane to the US and continue his plans to spruik his betting business betr on a country tour that includes Phoenix and New York.<\/p>\n

Representing Parramatta, barrister Arthur Moses SC said on Tuesday that Tripp’s credit would be under attack during the trial.<\/p>\n

The Storm boss had made an implied threat towards the Eels saying the NRL could punish the Eels if it held firm on Lomax by issuing a salary cap, the barrister said.<\/p>\n

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The NRL had denied saying this, he noted.<\/p>\n

“Did (Tripp) make it up? Or who’s telling the truth?” Mr Moses asked.<\/p>\n

Parramatta will also probe claims by Tripp that Peter V’Landys, who oversees rugby league in Australia, had called the Eels “unreasonable”.<\/p>\n

The Storm chairman also alleged the Australian Rugby League Commission chairman promised to register Lomax’s contract regardless of what happened with the Eels, Mr Moses said.<\/p>\n

It has sought documents showing the NRL offered these kinds of assurances as they would explain why the Storm had such confidence, the barrister said.<\/p>\n

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“They seem to think they can proceed down their merry way without the views of Parramatta,” he told the court.<\/p>\n

The Eels will also have to provide contracts and deeds of release for six other players to Lomax’s legal team.<\/p>\n

The winger hopes to compare his situation with others allowed to play with rival clubs to see if the restriction on who he signs up with is unreasonable and invalid.<\/p>\n

Communications within the Eels about whether any top 30 NRL players could replace Lomax will also have to be handed over.<\/p>\n

Melbourne has indemnified Lomax, meaning it will be on the hook to pay a hefty legal bill if he loses the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

The club has made three separate offers to Parramatta to try to free Lomax to play this season.<\/p>\n

All have been rejected.<\/p>\n

Most recently, Melbourne offered Parramatta $300,000 for the 26-year-old to play for them this season, with $211,000 of that in salary-cap relief.<\/p>\n

The court battle means the winger has no chance to play for the Storm against the Eels in round one.<\/p>\n

Lomax, a three-cap Australian international who scored five tries in six Origin games for the Blues, only joined the Eels for the 2025 season after seeking a release from the final two seasons of his contract with the Dragons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melbourne Storm’s boss has traded a luxury Las Vegas executive box at the NRL opening game for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-501496","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\/501496","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=501496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}