The Lomax is now the Gomax. Momax is now Nomax.

And the fallout on Monday morning at Kellyville?

Well, there was a bit of a media presence around the community centre (The Today Show?), but the vibe that I got was that there was more external noise than internal concerns.

As for the messaging from fans, the reaction has been everything from lack of faith in management, to glad the whole Lomax saga is over.

To be fair, the majority of the response has been the latter. Fans have been expecting it and don’t want players wearing the Blue and Gold if they’d rather do something else or be somewhere else.

For the squad members it was business as usual. And given that Lomax had not commenced the preseason there was zero disruption.

In fact, the vibe was very upbeat, and the competitive spirit within the group was on show.

The first Tour De Parra training shirt awards had been handed out. No surprise to see Ryley Smith in the Gold jersey. The young rake is a standard setter.

Sam Tuivaiti was wearing the green shirt and emerging forward Tyrese Lokeni was in the white.

The last jersey award, the spots, went to Teancum Brown. I only get to see part of each day’s work, the field session. There is so much more that happens in a day. So it was quite validating to have a player that I suggested had stepped up in the first two weeks also recognised by the coaches.

The mix of shirts as the fellas take the field

These weren’t the only colours added for the week. Tallyn Da Silva was sporting the blonde locks – the likely consequence of spinning the punishment wheel.

Back out on the field were Jordan Samrani, Bailey Simonsson, Saxon Pryke and Matt Doorey. In fact, Bailey, Saxon and Matt have been back in work prior to now, but most of their preseason has been indoor rehab. It was outdoor based this morning. Junior Paulo was an interested spectator and indicated to me that he’d be returning next week.

Junior watches on (image Eels media)

Back to this competitive session.. It all started with a fun warm up.

The 28 players were split into four teams of 8, with staff filling out the teams to make it 32. Using a combination of static short kicks and passes in a type of relay formation, the goal was to be the first team to get the ball to the last player who’d ground it for a try.

Winning celebrations

It would be a major understatement to say that there were noisy celebrations every time a team won a race. When it all wrapped up, the winner of the final race was hotly disputed with Ryles’ call signalling big celebrations.

From there, every drill seemed to have its share of noise or competition.

Team (image Eels media)

From kick and catch work by the outside backs (with defensive pressure) to forward hit ups into bump pads, the intensity was up a notch on the first two weeks.

Even the quick sprint drills with the outside backs involved a runner and a chaser. And there was a mixed bag of winners there with the spoils shared between runners and chasers.

Towards the end of the session, a simple three on two, one tackle “game” must have had some bragging rights involved as there were plenty of cheers every time a try was scored or a play was shut down.

The passing looked sharp – the form, the hands, the eyes! (Image Eels media)

Outside of the competitive edge across the morning, I did note that the passing and the lines run in the ruck drills were particularly sharp. The intensity of the attack left me convinced that it had an attack focus and not defence.

For those who are always keen to know about physical conditioning, I can report that there was a focus on strength today.

Eels forever!

Sixties

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