2026 Season

Matterson was offered this year from the Storm and a club option for next year.
He said he would only go of he was guaranteed next year. Storm wouldn't offer it.
 
A contract should be, must be binding, Lomax has a so so problem with making and agreeing to signed agreements.
He got out of his contract with Eels with the sole purpose of moving on to R360 with the vision of making mega bucks against what he was on, have to wonder what his manager was considering.
He should have signed with R360 prior to finishing up with Eels ensuring income, if they weren’t coming to the party he shouldn’t have refused and stayed an Eel and been earning very good money as one of the better wingers.
Instead he has jumped ship again, no regard for anyone but himself, greedy one track mind that lacks loyalty.
If he end up without a football career I won’t be upset, pleased actually but I have no doubts that he will play some form of sport but loyalty to that sport, the Club and more importantly his team mates and fans is unlikely, spots and tigers???
 
Frank McWilliams said:
A contract should be, must be binding, Lomax has a so so problem with making and agreeing to signed agreements.
He got out of his contract with Eels with the sole purpose of moving on to R360 with the vision of making mega bucks against what he was on, have to wonder what his manager was considering.
He should have signed with R360 prior to finishing up with Eels ensuring income, if they weren’t coming to the party he shouldn’t have refused and stayed an Eel and been earning very good money as one of the better wingers.
Instead he has jumped ship again, no regard for anyone but himself, greedy one track mind that lacks loyalty.
If he end up without a football career I won’t be upset, pleased actually but I have no doubts that he will play some form of sport but loyalty to that sport, the Club and more importantly his team mates and fans is unlikely, spots and tigers???
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Taking enjoyment out of someone potentially losing his career is a bit much for mine but all I’m asking for is this same energy being kept when a club tries to force a player out of an existing deal.
 
KPGreatness said:
Taking enjoyment out of someone potentially losing his career is a bit much for mine but all I’m asking for is this same energy being kept when a club tries to force a player out of an existing deal.
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Not so much enjoyment but his decision to do it, would feel the same about a club forcing a player out without suitable compensation, agreements work both ways.
Bottom line, it was his decision or advisors poor decision that caused it and he did have a track record, Tigers, Saints, Eels
 
But that's the point, the Eels were happy to grant the release because they'd overpaid for him at $800k for 4 years for a winger.
 
I thought the Dogs taking advantage of Josh Addo-Carr’s indiscretion instead of backing him was pretty low and I’m not sure who’s disagreeing with that. Par for the course, I think they’re a low club, run by a guy you’d be able to fit in a matchbox if you gave him an enema.

But there are a lot of grey areas being elided here. A club, for example, signing a player to a big five year deal and then after four years getting into some sort of strife with their cap or just hitting a cul de sac with what they’re trying to achieve, things not working out the way everything was hoped to over that time, the player feeling like they need a new challenge, a big change in personal circumstances… these are common grounds for a mutual agreement to part ways. Us moving Daniel Saifiti or David Klemmer out of the club a year early for example, I don’t think that was done in like an underhanded or mean-spirited way or whatever.

I don’t really understand why this needs to be a “oh well clubs do this all the time” “oh well players do this all the time” sort of thing where you’re trying to play a Prove Hypocrisy trump card that wins a debate lol. It’s a case by case thing. Some contracts end early after an open and fairly ethical process, and some end early because a player absconds to France without telling anyone, or Uncle Nick plants cocaine in their backpack and leaves an anonymous tip (this is a joke Nick don’t sue). 🤷‍♂️
 
The point still stands that clubs and players can be mercenary when it suits them. As the Dogs were with Fox, and Lomax was with R360, offering Saudi money.

But in most cases, the easiest way out for everyone is to try to come to an arrangement that is beneficial to all parties.

And unless the Eels are playing 3-D Chess to get Barney, then I don't see how getting nothing for Lomax helps anyone involved.
 
Back on the footy. The team list that most made me say "oh damn" this weekend is The Dolphins. Don't know how I missed that they got Morgan Knowles but that's one of the British guys who looks like they'd kill it over here, real head cracker, kind of assumed he'd never come over for some reason. If Tom Flegler and Gilbert can stay fit, actually kind of scary potential there once you add D Saf who needs to be surrounded by defensive studs. We know they can score points. That really should be a top four team. At full strength their middle rotation is Gilbert, Flegler, Knowles, D Saf, Plath, Kaufusi. Yuck.
 
Seano said:
The point still stands that clubs and players can be mercenary when it suits them. As the Dogs were with Fox, and Lomax was with R360, offering Saudi money.

But in most cases, the easiest way out for everyone is to try to come to an arrangement that is beneficial to all parties.

And unless the Eels are playing 3-D Chess to get Barney, then I don't see how getting nothing for Lomax helps anyone involved.
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Yeh, I agree with your point.

I guess it’s who you support that determines what a “beneficial deal for all parties” is. This proposal was great for Storm and Lomax. Not so much for the Eels or many other clubs to see Storm get another Origin player. Sure, Eels get off field money, but it doesn’t benefit their on field situation at all. Storm didn’t want to give them any player. The only benefit to Eels was going to be taking Matterson’s contract for the year. But in round 1 - bit hard to do anything with that. (Plus Matterson declined).

But as Seano says, most of the time when a player wants out of a club, or the club want a player out, they come to a mutual agreement. But, the overall benefit of contract is usually in the players favour.

For example, we told Hastings he was no longer in our plans moving forward, and it would be in his best interest (and definitely ours) to move on. He essentially said, nah, no thanks, my personal situation doesn’t really allow that at the moment, I’ll take my pay check and play reserves thanks. I don’t think either party did anything wrong here.

Ilias was on the outer at Dragons and I presume they mutually parted way, and allowed Ilias to sign with Titans.

You could look at Matterson situation too. From the moment he took a few game suspension rather than pay a fine, he was on the outer. But he’s contracted until the end of this year. The club has been trying to move him on ever since. But he’s just saying - nah I’m good thanks. I’ll play reserves and collect my money thanks. Nah I don’t really want to move to Melbourne, no thanks.

Hastings and Matterson are making clubs honour their signed contract/agreement.

I just get a real bad vibe about Lomax and his track record kind of supports that he thinks he can just do whatever he wants. Thinks he’s bigger than the clubs. I think if he went about things a little differently, the outcome may be a bit different, but he seems to have ended his relationship with the Eels on a very sour note. You reap what you sow sometimes.

I guess you can look at Mark Nawaq… he came to the roosters, has honoured his contract, and said, he guys, at the end of my contract I’m gonna go back to Rugby to push for a World Cup spot. No worries. He’d probably be welcomed back.

I can’t help but assume Lomax’s behaviour/ego has been a largely contributing factor to this panning out the way it has. But that’s all speculation on my behalf.
 
slotmachine said:
I sort of get it, their squad is incredibly thin this year losing paps, katoa, anderson, NAS and pezet and bringing in basically no one. Might be too much even for Bellamy.
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Yep and losing two grand finals in a row would wreck you psychologically, particularly last year's one where their "greatest spine ever" kind of got mugged off by one player who was individually responsible for, conservative estimate, roughly a 38 point swing in the outcome. And the Eli Katoa thing absolutely ****s them, it's like if Dylan Lucas got rubbed out for us, I would instantly draw a line through the next few years of my footy team as one that could do anything anytime soon. Absolutely get it. Also Cam Munster has all but said he's gonna retire at the end of next season so yeah they're desperately trying to staple together something that can compete while they still have him, Hughes and Grant.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Weird levels of desperation from the Storm who I’ve always been told can basically just fill their squad out with guys they pick up on the street.
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Regarding Matterson I am kinda surprised he would not try and learn under Bellamy even if it was for a year for a somewhat decent payday. Perth might come knocking at the last minute with maybe a bit less than what he was on.

I can totally picture him being an 80 min guy that runs at opposition weak kinks and 5/8s with the occasional offload like Ryan Hoffman was back in the day
 
Interesting discussion with Lomax's manager.


Edit: An interesting use of AI at the end to generate an avatar for Paul Kent, who is recovering from cancer treatment. It was good that they clearly identified that they were using AI, and that Kent had written the Q&A responses himself.

Not a fan of AI overall, but if it's used as a tool, not stealing a job and clearly identified as AI, I think that's a far more acceptable use of it, rather than allowing tech oligarchs carte blanche to gut the middle class whilst they enrich themselves further.
 
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Don’t care about fantasy points lmao. His ball playing has been very nice and he shows a lot of skill and vision in the his lead up work. Not exactly his fault if a guy he puts through a half break drops the ball in the play the ball.
 
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