Parramatta are ready to dig their heels in over Zac Lomax’s salary cap value, as coach Brad Arthur swaps up his halves while negotiating a long-term agreement with discarded rookie Blaize Talagi.
The Eels’ form slide after star halfback Mitchell Moses fractured his foot has persuaded Arthur to start Daejarn Asi with Dylan Brown against North Queensland on Saturday night.
Talagi returns to fullback in the NSW Cup this weekend, with ousted fan favourite Maika Sivo also on the wing in reserve grade, after splitting his first three NRL games between centre and five-eighth.
The 19-year-old is one of Parramatta’s most promising youngsters in some time, and he has until midway through the season to exercise a 2025 option.
With NRL rivals circling, the Eels are in talks with Talagi’s management over a multi-year contract to retain him at Parramatta in the long run, with Arthur identifying him as “the future of this club” on Tuesday night.
“The experience Blaize has got from the NRL, he’ll really benefit from that and he’s done a good job for us, but at the moment as a team we need a bit more experience alongside Dylan in the halves, and Daejarn has that,” Arthur said in the interview.
“Blaize’s future is probably not in the halves, to be honest; more fullback and centre as we figure it out. He’s learned a lot about defence and the NRL over the last few weeks, and he’ll play a lot more first-grade games for us this season.
“We had that conversation, and he understands.” He is very much the future of this club, and we will make certain of that.”
When Parramatta began pursuing Lomax as a centre, Talagi was promised that his own first-grade progression would be unaffected.
The Eels are likely to give Lomax a three-year contract this week after Arthur spoke with the Dragons flyer, who had the last two seasons of his St George Illawarra contract terminated due to frequent release requests.
Lomax’s Dragons contract was set to increase over $800,000 after this season, but the terms of his release state that the joint venture will not contribute to his income after 2024.
NRL rules prohibit contractual players from leaving clubs for less money than they are worth under the pay cap.
Arthur declined to comment on the conversations with Lomax. However,
