{"id":518219,"date":"2026-03-04T13:50:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T13:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/518219\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T13:50:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T13:50:29","slug":"zac-lomax-linked-with-code-switch-zac-lomax-legal-battle-parramatta-eels-melbourne-storm-ryan-matterson-nrl-news-rugby-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/518219\/","title":{"rendered":"Zac Lomax linked with code switch, Zac Lomax legal battle, Parramatta Eels, Melbourne Storm, Ryan Matterson, nrl news, rugby union"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twenty-four hours after Zac Lomax settled his legal battle with the Parramatta Eels<\/a> and agreed that he wouldn\u2019t return to the NRL, the exiled winger has been linked with another code.<\/p>\n

Granted a release from the Eels at the end of last season to pursue an opportunity in the now-postponed R360 competition – a rebel rugby union league – Lomax has found himself in the middle of headlines over the past month.<\/p>\n

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This was due to the Melbourne Storm hoping to secure his services<\/a> despite him agreeing to clauses in his release from the Eels that his former club would need to grant him permission to join another team.<\/p>\n

Failing to sign with the Storm, Code Sports<\/a> reports that Lomax has been pictured leaving Rugby Australia\u2019s headquarters, where the publication understands he held talks about a potential code switch.<\/p>\n

He is understood to have attracted interest from the ACT Brumbies and Western Force in the past.<\/p>\n

This comes after Storm coach Craig Bellamy voiced his opinion that he hopes to see Lomax eventually return to rugby league.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone in the game would like to see him stay in our game – he is an Origin player and has played for Australia,\u201d Bellamy said<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a quality player and he is a quality person too. To lose him to another code would be disappointing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day if we lose him to rugby league, that is going to be a loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

NO NEWS.COM No News wire NO AUSTRALIAN EMBARGO MUST CHECK WITH PIC DESK BEFORE USING DAILY TELEGRAPH – MARCH 3, 2026. Pictured is Zac Lomax leaving Rugby Australia HQ in Moore Park today. Picture: Tim Hunter.Source: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n

Speaking on the Lomax saga, Melbourne Storm CEO Justin Rodski confirmed that he would also love to see Lomax back in the 13-man code and revealed that they did offer to sign out-of-favour Eels forward Ryan Matterson as part of an agreement to lure the winger to Victoria.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, we were still in negotiations with Parramatta right up until the final minute ahead of the court proceedings commencing and in the end it was decided in the best interest of all parties that the court proceedings didn\u2019t go ahead,\u201d Storm CEO Justin Rodeki said on SEN Radio<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe reached a negotiated outcome but not an outcome that unfortunately delivered Zac Lomax to the Melbourne Storm.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was incredibly disappointing and frustrating that we weren\u2019t able to get a deal done, but in the end, it was decided that the court couldn\u2019t go ahead, and we\u2019d part ways and move on and get on with the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end Parramatta viewed they needed a football outcome as part of the negotiations and we did everything we could to facilitate that outcome for them including various different avenues around players, cap relief (and) financial settlement.<\/p>\n

Eels chasing Barnett after Lomax saga | 00:57<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end, they determined that it wasn\u2019t enough. It was a possibility at the 11th hour of another Parramatta player coming to Melbourne, called Ryan Matterson, but unfortunately, in the end, he decided he didn\u2019t want to come for just one year. That fell over at the last hurdle as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did everything we could to recruit Zac and convince Parramatta that the deal was reasonable and fair. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not really any winners in this. I hope he\u2019s not lost to the game now. He\u2019s a quality player, representative footballer who wanted to stay in the game and playing rugby league.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result of what has taken place I really don\u2019t know what he\u2019s going to do next and whether or not he stays in the game of rugby league.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twenty-four hours after Zac Lomax settled his legal battle with the Parramatta Eels and agreed that he wouldn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-518219","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\/518219","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=518219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}