{"id":824958,"date":"2026-07-26T13:17:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T13:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/824958\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T13:17:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T13:17:16","slug":"nrl-2026-png-chiefs-zac-lomax-press-conference-after-signing-three-year-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/824958\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: PNG Chiefs Zac Lomax press conference after signing three-year deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Zac Lomax says the \u201cchance to be part of history\u201d and his partner\u2019s approval to raise their first child in the PNG Chiefs\u2019 confined resort-style accommodation sealed his return to rugby league on a lucrative three-year deal.<\/p>\n

Lomax was unveiled as the Chiefs fifth signing<\/a> for 2028 on Sunday afternoon at a local match in Port Moresby, which he attended alongside club officials and Prime Minister James Marape.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old\u2019s deal is estimated to be worth between $700-800,000 per season and is tax-exempt under the Australian-PNG government agreement on player salaries at the incoming franchise.<\/p>\n

The Chiefs recruitment coup will bring Lomax back to the NRL after next year\u2019s Rugby World Cup, with Lomax briefly addressing his code-hopping in a hastily arranged press conference with local media.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously I didn\u2019t think [a rugby league] return was going to be too soon,\u201d Lomax said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut life changes and circumstances do and it\u2019s all for the better. Everything happens for a reason and you go with it\u2026 I\u2019m all in and [the Chiefs move] is obviously in 2028. In regards to rugby I\u2019m still still there for another year.<\/p>\n

\"ZacZac Lomax\u2019s return to the NRL is now official.Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to finishing that the best that I can and and competing there the best I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lomax\u2019s move to rugby on a two-year Western Force deal, after going all-in on the breakaway R360 competition, amounted to an estimated $350,000-a-year shortfall from his previous Parramatta contract.<\/p>\n

Fellow Chiefs target Joey Manu is weighing up a multi-year offer of his own<\/a> after touring PNG\u2019s housing and club facilities last week.<\/p>\n

Manu has another year to run on his $1.6 million Racing 92 contract, but he has already been offered to rival NRL clubs as a potential mid-season signing next year<\/a> before potentially linking with the Chiefs in 2028.<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer Rooster Joey Manu and his family at Port Moresby airport on Monday.<\/p>\n

Lomax and his family were sold on the move once his partner Kayla and mum Cheree agreed that the Chiefs five-star accommodation facilities would be suitable for their first child, expected early next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo come over here and have my family experience it, that was probably the main thing that was the ticket of approval,\u201d Lomax said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a little baby on the way so that was the thing that we really had to look at. But [Chiefs CEO] Lorna [McPherson], she\u2019s like another mum.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I knew \u2013 to be a part of history is what I was leaning towards straight away. And when I first caught up with [PNG officials] it was about leaving a legacy, changing the nation and just giving back to the country\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lomax joins marquee half Jarome Luai, Souths veteran winger Alex Johnston, NSW Origin utility Connor Watson and English international Matty Lees as PNG\u2019s confirmed 2028 signings.<\/p>\n

PNG internationals Gairo Voro, Morea Morea and Finley Glare are also on the books on two-year development deals.<\/p>\n

The Chiefs tax-free exemptions and marquee signings have put rival NRL clubs on high-alert and privately bemoaning a player market that has been turned on its head<\/a> by the new franchise.<\/p>\n

November 1 \u2013 when PNG can formally talk to any player coming off-contract in 2027 \u2013 now looms larger than ever in the scramble for topline talent, as Chiefs general manager Michael Chammas pointed to the knock-on effect of signings like Lomax.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Adam<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re three months away from that November 1 free agency and no one really expected us to have many players signed by the time we got there,\u201d Chammas said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting. You go to players on November 1 and say \u2018hey, do you want to play with these guys?\u2019 and I think it\u2019s a lot more appealing doing that than going there without anyone signed.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo hopefully there\u2019s a few more before November 1 and we\u2019ll start to assemble quite a competitive roster\u201d.<\/p>\n

News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"DanDan Walsh<\/a> is a sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":824959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-824958","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\/824958","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=824958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}