Lomax set to front court, but Storm will pay his legal bill if he loses

Zac Lomax will be required to attend the Supreme Court in Sydney to give his side of the story in his dispute with Parramatta, but the star winger won’t have to pay the legal bill if he loses.

Lomax’s former club, Parramatta, has commenced legal action in the NSW Supreme Court to try to stop the star back signing with the Storm after he was released last year to join the now delayed Rugby 360 competition.

The matter was back in court for two directions hearings on Friday. One of the key claims was that by Christmas Eve Lomax’s lawyer had allegedly told Parramatta that three clubs were potentially interested in taking him for the 2026 season.

It was alleged that, along with Melbourne, Perth and Canberra were also possible landing points for the State of Origin representative. However, the Bears and Raiders strenuously deny ever expressing any interest in Lomax.

In a further twist, the court heard that the Storm have indemnified Lomax, which means the NRL club will pay his legal costs should the case go against him. Regardless, Lomax will be required to provide evidence that Parramatta had unreasonably withheld their consent in denying him a transfer to the Storm.

“It’s clear he will need to give evidence on those matters that relate to him, which means it’s an issue he will need to be cross-examined on,” said the barrister acting for the Eels, Arthur Moses.

Moses revealed a key plank of Parramatta’s legal argument is that Lomax had only “presented himself as wanting to go to the Melbourne Storm and nobody else”, when it would be reasonable for him to also negotiate with other clubs.

“On the evidence that we’ve got from the production material, there was contact made by his lawyer with the club to propose three different clubs for Mr Lomax to go to potentially,” Moses said.

“One of them was the Storm, one of them were the Bears and one of them were the Raiders. Now there were three that they proposed in that communication.

“Prior to that communication, there had already been communication between the chair of the Melbourne Storm and Mr Lomax’s agent about a deal being done for him to go to the Storm.”

However, the Bears and Raiders are adamant they never had any interest in Lomax.

“That is absolute bullshit. Nobody has spoken about him, he’s never been mentioned,” Canberra chief executive Don Furner said.

“We haven’t got any space in the [salary] cap and we’re not looking for outside backs. I don’t know how they can make that up. That’s a lie.

“There was no conversation with Choc or Chimes [Lomax’s agent Clinton Schifcofske and Steve Gillis] about Zac Lomax. Absolutely zero.

“[Suggestions we were interested are] rubbish, absolutely 100 per cent factually incorrect.”

Perth Bears coach Mal Meninga also said the fledgling franchise had made no overtures to Lomax.

“We never expressed any interest, we didn’t know he was available, like you would imagine with most other clubs,” Meninga said.

“We never approached Zac or his management, with the view he wasn’t available.”

One of the lawyers acting for Lomax, Ramy Qutami, was contacted for comment.

The Storm are hopeful the hearing will go ahead as originally scheduled from February 12. A favourable outcome for them would allow Lomax to make his Storm debut against the Eels in the opening round of the season.

Parramatta, meanwhile, feel the scope of the case should be widened to include the Storm as a party to proceedings, which would require the matter to be pushed back until after round one. That would thwart Lomax’s bid to run out for the Storm in the club’s season opener against the Eels.

Justice François Kunc is likely to make a call on timings when the matter returns to court on Monday.