We finally have an official ruling on the Zac Lomax saga after the Supreme Court delivered a consent order that upheld the prohibition of Lomax joining another NRL club until the end of the 2027 season. The Tip Sheet naturally dives into the multitude of talking points to come out of the ruling as Sixties and Forty20 try to cover all the bases for the Eels and the code while the big fella gets ready to tee off over some comments in the press.
Amidst all the drama and hubbub we also have our first proper Team List Tuesday of the year as Parramatta gear up for a trip to Melbourne. Who has made the cut for Jason Ryles? How do Parra stack up for their season opener? The show recaps the weekend results in the Junior Reps to put a wrap on the Parra news.
Vegas dominates the NRL discussion this week after the Knights and Bulldogs prevailed in Round Zero. Shane Flanagan was left fuming after a controversial ending to the game between the Dragons and Bulldogs – was he just in his anger?
Catch the live stream from 7:30PM!
Great work and thank you to the club for having the tenacity and common strength here. I applaud them.
A win for the good guys. More come out between the lines than what was printed. Will NEVER have trust in the NRL again, or at least until we can get some honest operators running the show.
I’m disappointed it didn’t get resolved in court, I want to know more about the “apply the blowtorch” comment to NRL CEO Abdo
I consider that statement to be worthy of a separate investigation
Yeah, the NRL was never gonna let that be cross examined
A win for common sense. I’ve never seen a player self implode a career like this and I can’t understand why he ever left St George to come to parra on less money.
He left a 800k contract at a bottom 8 side to come to a bottom 8 team on 650k it defies all logic.
There’s something more sinister around the whole situation and I don’t believe Zac was ever here long term regardless of R360.
His manager is a absolute goose and I wouldn’t touch any of his players
Everything about Lomax defies logic. And his manager, yeah, I can’t imagine players are cueing up for his services.
He has two managers of record, one is Clinton Schifcofske, but the other is Steve Gillis who’s been a fairly high profile manager since just before SL. “Chimes” is normally very well respected.
Seeing the comments from a number of media types, appears that there has been a decision to trend their remarks to suggest that the Eels are losing out and the Storm were trying to support the player. Several seem to have decided that a position like that will score them points with the NRL and Storm.
Then they question why there is little appetite for their views in newspapers and online currently. Oh well ,more kudos to TCT and even how Anasta addresses these things, a surprising outcome.
And on Matto
Can we just give him away, what are our options now to get this guy out of the club?
I think I’ve had enough of the guy now, enough is enough
I think Parra either retire matto or pay him out full to free up roster spot. He’s been on putter for a while and happy to collect his paycheck. Shouldn’t be around the club imo.
Also, his antics trying to get another year out of Melbourne were laughable. Not a single nrl club wanted a bar of him last year or prior and he has audacity to ask the gf finalists for another year?
On a side note, after a gf loss teams need their best players to go up a little gear. We re-signed lane, matto, rcg and others. All of these guys regressed badly and were awful resignings. It was clear we should of moved off him the same year we resigned him (by paying a portion of his contract and seeing if other clubs would take him)
Let’s not forget Ron, those players were resigned because they contributed to the Eels getting into the grand final. The Dolphins arrived and there was an expectation from the fans for their retention. This was done and they were locked in for a number of years – true! What happened after that, the powers that be changed the nature of the game when they introduced the six again and, after the pre-season had started (I think). Those players served a purpose at the time and it was difficult to off load the leaden foots with long contracts. A change of coach and a change in direction has put all that behind us.
Ron, it is going to be a good year – sit back and enjoy the ride.
That is true, they helped get us to where we got but it didn’t take much to know they had already peaked. BA lost his job as he couldn’t stomach making the hard calls to cull people that helped the team get to a certain point. I respect BA for what he did to instil respect in the jersey but I have much more confidence in Ryles to make tough calls
Easy to say that in hindsight Ron, but there was a lot of “We better make sure we re-sign him” going around at the time. Can you imagine the bile that would’ve been thrown at the club if we had let say RCG go, and then killed it at the Dolphins ? The club was in a tough spot. Now you could make the argument that it was in that spot because of poor planning, and that’s a valid argument, but don’t forget, players and their managers also do their planning to get maximum leverage. They knew the Dolphins were coming three years out, they also knew how to work the system.
He’s a loose end, the club needs to get it sorted because it’s demoralizing having a passenger cruising out while others are working their absolute butts off to earn half of what Matto is on.
It reminds me of that Manly player a few years ago
I’m done with him now, after giving him the benefit of the doubt for years, if he has a shred of decency left in him he will move on
If you are reading this Matto it’s nothing personal, it’s about doing what’s best for the Eels
Well from what I’ve read and heard he’s been training the house down, at least until the concussions came back. In any event, he’s on the books for the next 8 months, he’s not going anywhere unless he can get another year from someone else, and that’s seems unlikely. Play him in NSW Cup and use him as insurance in the case of injuries. He still has some value.
Hopefully the club can get him medically retired. That would work for both parties. I don’t think he has any intention of going to another club nor would there be any takers at any price.
I doubt that they can get him medically retired now after he wanted to play with the Storm for the next two years instead of one. That doesn’t sound like the actions of a player who is suffering from concussion.. or maybe it does !
Good observation
Maybe we need to get Abdo to apply the blowtorch
I agree, Matterson asking for a two year deal hurt our chances of a medical retirement.
In my opinion, Matterson has no desire to resurrect his career, he’s happy to do nothing and get paid, he saw an opportunity to drain an extra year out of another club, why would he move states if he can stay in Sydney and feed off the Eels if he’s only guaranteed a year’s salary elsewhere.
To be fair, he has a contract, he hasn’t breached it and has every right to milk it for what it’s worth. We are paying for our own poor decisions, Matterson is the only remaining mistake made before the new coaching staff was appointed.
From what I understand, he’s currently not training due to concussion during training, a medical retirement is still possible. The opportunity to earn an extra years salary has thrown a spanner in the works, he has nothing to lose, he’ll be paid this year regardless.
I thought Ashley Klein (surprisingly) had a good game controlling Knights v Cowboys, but Grant Atkins was atrocious!!GG
That was a terrible performance. The dragon’s were dead set robbed.
But when you see that Stephen Crichton wasn’t even cited for his hit .. well nothing will surprise me.
PVL drones on about growing the game but the officials are putrid.
The yanks won’t put up with this sort of carry on if they are going to invest their money.
It’s the most important area we need to address.
I have real fears about what we are going to cop moving forward.
Ill honestly be surprised if we don’t have at least one sin bin.
Well done Parra!
And Trent Reed is now my favorite comedian, I just laugh when he opens his mouth, his serious face when he’s doing his gig gets me every time.
A binding contract is a players guarantee of income and livelihood. Clint Newton/RLPA is unable to move his lips in this direction…the top official representing players prefers to skirt around the issue by only talking about termination clauses and using players in swap deals. Termination clauses are standard inclusions in employment contracts, player agents and their legal advisors would ensure these clauses are structured within accepted practice. Player swaps are a little raw in NRL as they are uncommon, but would not be executed outside of contractual conditions which would encompass player agreement. Newton doesn’t want to criticise or lecture Lomax, one of his flock, but maybe his messaging should support the core intent of a contract which is in the interests of all players.
Your last statement is critical here, and Newton would do well to mind it, since the RLPA itself is held together by a contract that it would presume to be legally binding. If anybody can just walk away from any common law contract and enter into another contract in the same ecosystem, then we have absolute chaos. What if the players simply decided to walk away from the union and start a rival union ?