{"id":513396,"date":"2026-03-02T07:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T07:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/513396\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T07:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T07:07:12","slug":"update-on-lomax-legal-battle-after-day-one-of-court-hearing-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/513396\/","title":{"rendered":"Update on Lomax legal battle after day one of court hearing – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Day one of the Zac Lomax<\/a> and Parramatta Eels<\/a> trial began on Monday morning, with the hearing expected to run across seven days, including further sittings on March 13 and 17.<\/p>\n

The start of proceedings was delayed multiple times on Monday as behind-the-scenes talks continued.<\/p>\n

However, the court was told that the Storm and the Eels are \u201cvery close\u201d to an agreement on the terms for Lomax to join Melbourne Storm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lomax’s barrister, Adam Casselden SC, told the court that discussions had carried on late into Sunday night and were ongoing.<\/p>\n

After Monday’s delays, Casselden asked for the matter to be stood over until Tuesday, with Parramatta agreeing to return to court at 10 am.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy present instructions are that the parties are very close to a resolution,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always wish both parties well in their attempts to resolve their differences,\u201d Justice Kunc replied while granting the adjournment.<\/p>\n

The Melbourne Storm<\/a> are keen on securing Lomax as soon as possible, after confirming that their star winger, Xavier Coates,<\/a> will be unavailable for the first few months of the season due to an Achilles injury.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One suggestion from Parramatta was to delay Lomax’s availability until Round 2, which would prevent him from playing against the Eels in the season opener for Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Court documents reveal the details of negotiations between the clubs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Melbourne chairman Matt Tripp rejected a player swap proposed by Parramatta and initially offered a $100,000 transfer fee, later increasing it to $200,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Documents show Melbourne ultimately proposed $300,000, with $211,000 in salary cap relief and $89,000 as a transfer fee.<\/p>\n

Lomax’s legal team claims Parramatta demanded \u201cunreasonable and unrealistic\u201d transfer fees and breached the deed of release by unfairly stopping him from signing with another NRL<\/a> club.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His lawyers also argue the Eels benefited from releasing him, including by freeing up salary cap space.<\/p>\n

Parramatta, meanwhile, points to a January 21 text from Storm chief executive Justin Rodski to NRL<\/a> chief executive Andrew Abdo.<\/p>\n

\u201cHi Andrew, not getting anywhere at this point, can you apply the blow torch on Parramatta to get this done?\u201d the text read.<\/p>\n

The message continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLomax staying in the NRL<\/a> is obviously a win for the game.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In their filings, the Eels expressed their grievances.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis message was an attempt to use the NRL<\/a> to place pressure on the Parramatta Eels<\/a> to resolve the matter on terms acceptable to the Melbourne Storm<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Negotiations are expected to continue throughout Monday afternoon, with the hearing to continue on Tuesday, March 3.<\/p>\n

These last-minute discussions could possibly bring a premature end to this legal dispute and see Lomax run out for Storm by Round 2.<\/p>\n

Get set for the footy with the FREE Zero Tackle 2026 NRL Season Guide!<\/a> Packed with 130+ pages of player profiles, team previews, insights and analysis, the 2026 NRL Season Guide<\/a> is built for fans who want the full picture. Download your free Season Guide HERE.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Day one of the Zac Lomax and Parramatta Eels trial began on Monday morning, with the hearing expected…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-513396","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\/513396","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=513396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}