{"id":825496,"date":"2026-07-26T19:32:01","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T19:32:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/825496\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T19:32:01","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T19:32:01","slug":"png-chiefs-confirm-zac-lomax-signing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/825496\/","title":{"rendered":"PNG Chiefs confirm Zac Lomax signing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The PNG Chiefs<\/a> announced on Sunday afternoon that they have signed Zac Lomax<\/a> on a three-year deal from 2028 until the end of the 2030 season.<\/p>\n

The former Dragons and Eels player becomes the fifth player to sign with the PNG Chiefs<\/a> ahead of their inaugural season.<\/p>\n

It’s been no secret he’s had a desire to return to rugby league, after trying to make his way to the Melbourne Storm<\/a> after requesting a release from the Parramatta Eels<\/a> at the end of 2025.<\/p>\n

Lomax is under contract with the Western Force in the Super Rugby competition until the end of the 2027 season.<\/p>\n

Since joining the Western Force in March this year, Lomax has scored two tries and has a try assist to his name in seven appearances for the Western Australian side.<\/p>\n

\"NRLAUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND – AUGUST 29: Zac Lomax of the Eels warms up before the round 26 NRL match between the New Zealand Warriors and Parramatta Eels at Go Media Stadium on August 29, 2025, in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Hannah Peters\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The former NSW Blues<\/a> representative met with the club officials and toured the Chiefs’ facilities in Port Moresby this past week, along with Joseph Manu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Before meeting with the PNG Chiefs<\/a>, he declined the opportunity to sign with the Melbourne Storm<\/a> and play for the club from the 2027 season, after the Eels and Storm had agreed in principle in what would have been a player swap for Jack Howarth<\/a> heading to Parramatta.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old has played 133 NRL<\/a> games since he made his debut in 2018, with 114 games for the St George Illawarra Dragons<\/a> through to the 2024 season, and 19 with the Parramatta Eels<\/a> in the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

Labelled Chiefs player 005, the winger\/centre joins Jarome Luai<\/a>, Alex Johnston<\/a>, Matty Lees<\/a> and Connor Watson<\/a>, who have all signed with the club 24 months before the club officially joins the competition in 2028, with the head coach to be Willie Peters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Zac Lomax<\/a> spoke of excitement about signing with the Chiefs on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

“PNG, thank you very much, guys. I just want to say, thank you so much, everyone. It’s an absolute privilege,” Lomax said.<\/p>\n

“I am super honoured to be committed to you guys, and it’s such a great opportunity for all of us boys and everyone that is going to be coming over to the PNG Chiefs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“We are going to shock the NRL<\/a>, I am telling you, and I can’t wait to be a part of it.”<\/p>\n

Prior to the Melbourne Storm<\/a> playing the South Sydney Rabbitohs<\/a> on Friday night, it was reported Cameron Munster was permitted to talk to the NRL’s 19th team. <\/a><\/p>\n

The Maroons<\/a> five-eighth is allowed to talk to the club until he returns from injury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The PNG Chiefs announced on Sunday afternoon that they have signed Zac Lomax on a three-year deal from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-825496","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\/825496","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=825496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}