'We've lost one hell of a player': NRL coach on Zac Lomax's exit

A frustrated Craig Bellamy says he can understand why Zac Lomax moved to rugby union, voicing his annoyance that the State of Origin winger has been lost to rugby league.

One week after making his displeasure known at Lomax being locked out of an NRL return with Melbourne, Bellamy doubled down on his comments on Friday.

The Temora junior this week signed a two-year deal with the Western Force, with an eye to playing for the Wallabies in next year’s Rugby World Cup.

Blocked by Parramatta from joining another club without their approval following his attempted move to R360 last year, Lomax could theoretically have tried to go elsewhere after talks between the Eels and Storm broke down.

But he instead opted for union, listing the possibility of playing “on a truly international stage” as a powerful motivation.

“It’s a shame we lost him,” Bellamy said.

“I can understand his frustration, and I can understand leaving our game, but that doesn’t make me feel better about it.

“We’ve lost one hell of a player to another code, and we didn’t really have to. But even more important, we lost a really good person to our code.”