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The final week of NRL & NRLW action has arrived. Come the end of Sunday we will have champions crowned between the Storm and Broncos in the NRL and the Broncos and Roosters in the NRLW. The Tip Sheet looks at both match-ups and the big story lines heading into each decider as the season reaches its frenzied zenith.
Sixties and Forty20 also recap a quiet week out of Parramatta with the 2026 coaching staff for the elite junior pathways locked in. The NRLW also announced its departures and the boys look at what it means for the composition of the squad heading into next year.
Catch the show from 7:30PM!
Anybody hear about the R360 bull and lomax? Apparently all of it is based off some braith anasta ‘speculation’. Would be nice to not see the media start rumours about parra for once in a while.
On another note would Lomax even convert well to union? His strongest asset other then his aerial is easily his work rate which wouldn’t convert too well and his defence probably couldn’t handle it either.
I think Lomax is gone. Been noise around the traps for a while that he signed with r360 over a month ago. I assume he just wanted it kept quiet in case r360 doesn’t get off the ground in they way they described to him. Now braith has mentioned it on nrl 360 the cats out the bag. The club and nrl no doubt have serious decisions to make about players breaking their contract
Unfortunately the offer/interest in Lomax is real. Whether R360 gets off the ground remains to be seen.
Firstly Lomax just can’t walk out on the club he has a legally binding contract no matter what your thoughts are on player contracts.
As disappointing as it would be the Eels will overcome the loss. Maybe that’s why Simonsen is hanging in there.
I think we should wait and see what transpires. If he is seriously considering departing the club then I am certain that there would have been discussions between Lomax’s management and the Eels by now.
Hey John
Hope you’re well. It seems he can if he is happy not to be back for the NRL; but haven’t we heard this all before? Time will tell. I know little of the rugby plan but just imagine if 10-20 decent players up and go?? Who knows
I am just disappointed. I get that players have to take the opportunities as they arise. The player gets the cash and the supporters shed the tears.
However I think I am getting crusty in my old age. My immediate thoughts on hearing this is how we make use of his cap space.
Pezet may well be one option. Right now we are hoping that Joash can 100% fill Dylan’s shoes. Only an optimist would be confident of that happening.
I am doing fine Milo, thank you for asking. Still at The Entrance. I have been lured into Ken’s custard tarts. They are special. New owners at Ken’s
No need to justify anything John. We all have firm views on these issues.
Supporters always end up last.
Just interesting to see the news this week during GF week, and who knows what Parra will end up with.
The only consistency is a Ken’s Pie my friend – the curry beef for me. His profiteroles were superb!
I’ll be back up to there soon,
Take care
I would be demanding compensation. It is irrelevant that he is leaving league and going to Union.
John, you are correct we will overcome the loss. But I feel like we shouldn’t have to. I can’t blame Lomax for taking the offer but by the same token there shouldn’t be offers made to contracted players.
I did hear that JR is open to allow a release. The speculation coming from Jonah Pezet’s agent none other than Braith Anasta. How would he know unless we are also in the running for the young Storm half? Anasta said the rumours have been around for a while as with RTS and Paps. But if Paps goes they’ll keep Pezet at Storm leaving us in the cold and MON with egg on his face yet again. All speculation at this point. If it happens Simmo will want his wing spot back and Lomax will sign with R360 as a guaranteed “centre?”
Not surprised by Jason’s comments. Ryles has made it clear that he only wants players that are all in.
Ryles would’ve went ice cold on Lomax the moment he knew.
Like you said pete, Pezet would be a great signing but knowing our luck, we’ll lose Lomax, Pezet either stays or signs elsewhere and we once again are left holding our you know whats.
Agree,
I feel Lomax will keep it quiet until after Ashes tour. If he announced it now he’ll jeopardise his selection.
Joseph, I wrote about Pezet today. As I understand it, the Storm are looking for a loan arrangement with Pezet, similar to when Grant went to the Tigers. That won’t suit the Eels.
Ahh, just what we needed, disruption to our preseason before it’s even begun, I mean, of all the players that could be rumoured to be defecting it had to be a Parra player, and one of our best.
I’m not going to be one of those who will say Lomax wouldn’t be a big loss because he would be. Lomax is not elite in my opinion but he’s not far off, he can have a poor defensive read, can make an error and can make the odd dumb decision but he plays tough, makes the metres and can do freakish things on his day, more so in the air. Lomax leaves nothing on the field.
And we still have Matto stuck on our books, it looks like it will be 2027 before we can fire a shot and by then we are competing with new franchises for players.
I’m not sure how the salary cap works but from a layman’s prospective, I hope the club takes a Bulldogs approach and signs the best available players now and worries about the cap later. I know Bernie said fans need to be patient and I love Bernie but he hasn’t been waiting 40 years for a premiership. I could just accept being thanked for being patient but I don’t like being told to be patient by current club officials. Ryles understands this and I don’t recall Ryles ever asking fans to be patient, his approach has gone a long way towards fans being patient. He did say the future is now, how refreshing is that.
Thanks for the show gents.
On the GF I think the Broncos are a decent chance – all this talk abt Melbourne having extra time will mean little to me.
Brisbanes defence last week was outstanding- they do that again and hold the ball and game over.
They talking 1.5M USD a year hard to turn down we still have to release him and don’t see why we would if not getting another player in return thats similar quality.
The problem for the Parramatta Eels between 26’ and 27’?
Mitchell Moses is too valuable. We can’t win competitive games without him. We won’t sniff top four or eight unless he plays most weeks. Solution? Snag Pezet from the Storm. His kicking game would elevate us. That’s why I’m not sweating Lomax leaving even though I’m a huge fan and love him in blue and gold. We can win without Lomax. Without Moses? Dead meat. Pezzet kicking game could keep us top-eight contenders even if Moses misses time. Right now, no one’s filling that long kick & big bomb gap… but, I’d still beg Lomax to stay. Just saying halfback trumps wing when it counts. Pezet is young and semi green. But his kicking game when filling out at the Storm looks pretty strong for his age & leven of experience.
We can plug the wing, plug fullback, even 5/8. But we still cannot beat top 8 teams convincingly without a long kicker in the team. Pezet for me is more valuable to have in our top 30 than an elite winger. The Fox and Iongi are both great at yardage, Bailey Simo offers good yardage if we need him.
I’m a big Lomax fan but still see a prime halfback as being potentially more valuable long term to the eels, especially considering Moses age and we realistically need to be preparing for the future beyond him if he likely only has 3 years left as an elite halfback.. especially if you consider how regularly he gets injured now.
Yeah it’s disappointing to see the lomax news getting louder and louder and if the rumours are true I’d be sad to see lomax go but not disappointed. Simonson would happily slot back on the wing I reckon since the main issue seemed to be him getting an NRL starting spot and we could potentially already have the successor to Moses with pezet. I’d have to see us sign him though if we were to lose lomax.
As wild as it may sound to some, I think losing Lomax, IF we get Pezet, is actually huge for us. Lomax can no doubt be a game breaker, and I’ve enjoyed watching him this season, but I also don’t want people at the club who don’t want to be there (irrespective of how good the money is). And, as you said, it’s not like we don’t have another winger, we literally have Simonsson, who we know can deal damage if fit. If we can combat a loss like Lomax for someone like Pezet, it’s honestly great business. Anyway, that’s all dependent on whether we do get Pezet. There’s always the extremely high chance that Braith, who manages Pezet, and coincidentally seems to be the only one circling the Lomax news, is doing this just to get Pezet some more $$$. One last thing on this, I don’t like how Lomax came out and explicitly said he loves the club and has three more years on his contract so that’s where he’s staying, yet the news gets louder and louder the next day… I guess I don’t like the comment that was made if he does end up leaving.
Fingers crossed it works out for us.
Thanks for your work across the season TCT. Been new to the channel this season, but absolutely loved it. I look forward to your preseason posts
Muz I’d prefer to see us build rather than replace. The ideal scenario would be to sign Pezet, keep Lomax and somehow sign a top shelf middle.
Then we’d be ready to fire a shot in 26.
I dunno, other clubs seem to able to sign who they want, keep who they have and miraculously keep under the cap.
We know how they do it and good luck to them. I want our club to do the same. Surely a club like Parra in a business heartland can attract decent third parties.
Sarantinos can boast all he wants about membership numbers, they don’t help our cap.
I’ll stop there before I sound like someone from 1eyed Eel.
Fellas hopefully Lomax isn’t going and Pezet comes
We ultimately need to see the eels chase a bigger kicking half back
Then all the sudden we are likely a top 8 / finals team (with some luck) in 2026-2027
Bigger kicking back up half ***
It’s a failing strategy relying on Moses to play every game
It never happens, and we have no long kicking game without Moses
Eels #1 priority needs to be 1 more bigger kicking half on the roster …
Or we are toast if Moses misses games again
Not enough go forward on this team to win big games without a big boot if Mitchell isn’t playing
Tks men. The Broncs will be better with Carrigan, the Storm have a great spine. I hope Atkins is sparse with the whistle but when he does blow it, it’s totally warranted and not a nitpicking momentum changer. I think the Broncs can win if they can start well,
The Lomax thing is disappointing if true, on a number of fronts, but as others have suggested, it may not be fatal. Spare the thought, but what if he’s not the only one? People like to fall back on ‘it’s a business’, if so, contract breakers should not be given free rides.
For obvious reasons hate the Storm so will take the Broncos. I am really enjoying watched Reece Walsh at the moment who is having an almost Haynesque run of form and ability to turn games on his own. And Adam Reynolds winning another premiership after being unwanted by the Bunnies would be a fairytale to end his career on.
The Rugby 360 does seem to be sports washing and creating an artificial comp seems risky. But I don’t know enough about world rugby if this will disrupt and change the game or eventually die a slow death.