A court order confirmed on Tuesday morning prohibits Zac Lomax from entering into a contract, working, training, or playing with any NRL club until 31 October 2027 without the Eels' written consent.

Crucially, Parramatta haven't slammed the door and are willing to work with Lomax and his agent to find an NRL club that wants to sign him in exchange for "appropriate value" for their football program.

Parramatta set a dangerously high standard for letting Lomax go to another club, with Melbourne proposing multiple deals, including two final proposals.

One being a $750,000 transfer fee to bring Lomax to the club, and the second seeing the Storm agreeing to sign Ryan Matterson, paying out the remainder of his $416,000 contract and $300,000 in cash.

Matterson was set to be contracted this year with 2027 being an option controlled by the team if he was to head to the Storm.

The Eels forward rejected the move, as he wanted the second year of his deal with Melbourne guaranteed instead of an option per all reports.

There are two tools a club can use to compensate another in a swap or transfer:

Cash sits entirely off the salary cap.

It goes directly into the receiving club's football department budget: things like for recruitment, retention, staff etc.

It frees equivalent space on the receiving club's book without the acquiring club necessarily paying wages to any specific player.

Player swaps are the third option, and the most complex.

Any play offered a compensation must be a genuine football asset, not a salary dump the acquiring club is trying to offload.

Both the NRL and the receiving club can reject a player swap on those ground.

The player himself must agree to the move, and no player can be traded without their consent under the standard NRL player contract.

With these tools in hand, here are five clubs that could realistically put together a package Parramatta could accept.

3. Dolphins: Selwyn Cobbo

Reports have suggested Cobbo is very happy in Redcliffe and it would be hard to see him move to Sydney and for the team to be the Eels.

In terms of Cobbo's future being uncertain at the present, the Eels could be intrigued by the upside in the Queensland Origin star, who is younger than Lomax.

Looking for an opportunity to play fullback or centre instead of wing, Cobbo would slot perfectly in the left centre role next to Addo-Carr.

If Cobbo was to be offered a long-term deal from the 2027 season and the Dolphins don't see him valuable in their plans, getting Lomax in return could most certainly get Kristian Woolf excited about a backline of size, agility and creativity with aerial threat presence and improve their yardage game out of the back five.

This deal could work best as a player for player plus cash transaction, something like:

Eels receive: Selwyn Cobbo + $100k cash

Dolphins receive: Zac Lomax 

Cobbo, contracted at around $650,000 for the 2026 season, means both teams could absorb the players swapped and with the Dolphins being salary cap tight, the Eels could provide salary-cap relief for the 2027 season, then the Dolphins could take on Lomax's salary by themselves from the 2028 season and beyond.

Although a very unlikely deal, the Eels would be very interested in a backline player of Cobbo's age and potential, and under Jason Ryles, could tap into other aspects of his level of play that would make him one of the best centres in the game.

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