{"id":528565,"date":"2026-03-09T09:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T09:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/528565\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T09:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T09:44:10","slug":"the-three-words-from-zac-lomax-that-stunned-rugby-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/528565\/","title":{"rendered":"The three words from Zac Lomax that stunned rugby league"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Penrith, NSW and Kangaroos hardman Mark Geyer did not hold back. \u201cIt\u2019s disappointing to hear that when you think St George Illawarra were great to him, Parramatta were great to him, and Melbourne wanted to be great to him,\u201d Geyer said. \u201cHe\u2019s basically given the code both fingers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope it\u2019s the last we see of him. That comment was as subtle as a sledgehammer. It\u2019s not what you say but how you say it. If that wasn\u2019t a two-fingered salute to rugby league, I don\u2019t know what it is. Let him go and try and play in his World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Western<\/p>\n

Western Force recruit Zac Lomax.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

The irony of Lomax\u2019s enthusiasm for the 15-man code coming so soon after his failed attempt to join the Melbourne Storm was not lost on International Rugby League chairman Troy Grant.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to hear about Zac\u2019s dream of representing the Wallabies, which comes less than two weeks after losing his court case to play with Melbourne,\u201d Grant said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis departure from international rugby league is of no consequence \u2013 and he will have no impact on rugby union. All I can say, \u2018Don\u2019t let the door hit you on the arse on the way out\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grant said several nations, including Australia, New Zealand, Samoa and Tonga, were live hopes of winning this year\u2019s Rugby League World Cup, while only South Africa and the All Blacks were realistically in contention to scoop the rugby version in 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t let the door hit you on the arse on the way out.\u201d<\/p>\n

International Rugby League chairman Troy Grant<\/p>\n

Lomax is off to play with the Western Force. The Perth-based Super Rugby franchise is clearly popular with the locals \u2013 they\u2019ve pulled a crowd of 5000 for both home games so far this season. <\/p>\n

There would be more interest in Lomax\u2019s old team, the Temora Dragons, in the Group 9 competition.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

Lomax is a brilliant athlete who got dudded by R360<\/a>. That was not his fault.<\/p>\n

The whole circus could have been averted had he insisted on receiving a bank guarantee from R360 before quitting the Eels \u2013 and the $700,000 per year they were going to pay him for the next three seasons.<\/p>\n

He should be kicking himself over those three years of lost income. And should his rugby switch bomb, he may also come to regret that three-word parting shot at the game that made him a mini fortune.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Penrith, NSW and Kangaroos hardman Mark Geyer did not hold back. \u201cIt\u2019s disappointing to hear that when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-528565","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\/528565","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=528565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}