LONG READ Zac Lomax: ‘He's an elite league player but it's a huge challenge with a short runway in union'

The Zac Lomax code switch debut is imminent. The former New South Wales and Australian NRL player made a hurried move to rugby three weeks ago after some desperate final attempts to remain in rugby league were extinguished.

Those were dashed by the court system upholding conditions of the contract release he agreed to with his club, Parramatta, after he threw all his eggs in the ultimately doomed R360 basket.

A deal with the Western Force, with a token incentive from Rugby Australia added on top, was hastily arranged and announced within a matter of days. Lomax moved across the country, began training in Perth while the Force were still on tour in New Zealand, and now we await the day he’s named in a rugby team for the first time.

It didn’t happen against the Chiefs at home on Saturday, although he did take part in the warm-up with his new team-mates. But it will happen soon. It might be in Brisbane this Saturday against Queensland, or maybe against the Drua in Fiji the week after.

But what should Western Force and rugby fans expect? And what sort of an impact can Lomax have?

Perth-based commentator Mick Colliss is as intrigued as anyone and says the read on Lomax signing with the Force was guarded initially, among Force fans.

“I’d have to say it was received sceptically,” he says. “People were sceptical because there was so much media about him with the court case, trying to go and play for the Melbourne Storm. So it really looked to all fans like he wanted to play rugby league.

“Then with the Perth Bears coming into the NRL in 2027, people were thinking he’s got a bit of form for breaking contracts, so has he just used the Western Force to get a gig with the Perth Bears?

“But the word is that he’s a very good athlete and the Western Force could do with a good player. The scepticism is still there, but with the desperation for results that Force fans now have, we’re thinking ‘we’ll take anyone that might make a difference’. So it’s funny. The perception has definitely swung.”

He’ll make some mistakes, no doubt, but just get his hands on the ball, play a basic game around him. Let him crash it up if he wants, let him offload.

The 24-14 loss to the Chiefs on Saturday has put the Western Force’s season on a knife edge. They sit 10th on the Super Rugby Pacific ladder with one win from six games and will probably need seven wins if they want to make the play-offs this year – knowing that teams with six wins missed out last season.

Though their New Zealand leg of the season is done, their run home consists of two games against each of the Queensland Reds, Fijian Drua and NSW Waratahs, hosting the Crusaders in Perth and a trip to Canberra to face the ACT Brumbies for a second time this season.

Six more wins among that set will take some doing, and Colliss thinks that equation has quickly changed attitudes around how and where on the field to unleash Lomax on the game of rugby.

“People were thinking, ‘OK, let’s start him in the 23 and then maybe put him on the wing so he can learn the game from the wing’.

“But now people are thinking ‘stick him maybe even at 12 and let’s just let him go’. If you’re a losing team that’s not going to make the finals, why learn the game from the wing?

“He’ll make some mistakes, no doubt, but just get his hands on the ball, play a basic game around him. Let him crash it up if he wants, let him offload. If they want a kick-chase game for his aerial skills, they can.

“I think if you’ve got the guy, just throw him in. Because if we lose again, it doesn’t matter. But if we can pull a bit of magic out of the bloke, well that’s going to make a lot of people happy. So I’m all on board with the idea now!”

Presuming Lomax does make his Western Force and Super Rugby Pacific debut at some point in the next fortnight on the road, home fans in Perth could get a first look at him in their Round 10 clash against the Crusaders. It’s not hard to imagine an increased amount of media coverage and promotion for such an occasion, and maybe even a bit of novelty value for local rugby fans.

It’s like a new animal at the zoo…People want to take their kids to see this new thing that’s turned up in Perth.

“Oh yeah, there absolutely will be a curiosity,” Colliss agrees. “He’s generated a lot of media right across the country and also here in Perth. There’s a good rugby league community here, and there’s obviously way more AFL fans, but Zac Lomax’s name is still pretty well known in WA.

“It’s like a new animal at the zoo. You know, we’ve got the new guy that’s turned up in rugby. People want to take their kids to see this new thing that’s turned up in Perth.

“I definitely think he’ll put some bums on seats and he’ll certainly be a guy that people will watch. There’ll be people who will watch to criticise, to say ‘why did they sign him?’ But others will be watching and thinking that maybe he can bring something and create a little bit of magic for the Force.”

Veteran coach Laurie Fisher is still regarded as one of the sharpest rugby minds in the game and has seen more than a few league converts in his time as a professional coach in Australia, Ireland and England.

From the sheer magic and indigenous instinct of Andrew Walker in his early days with the Brumbies, to the prodigious athleticism of Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii in the current Wallabies set-up, Fisher has seen them all.

Time, Fisher says, is going to be Lomax’s biggest challenge. He needs plenty of it to be ready, and there’s virtually none available.

“Definitely three weeks is a challenge,” Fisher says. “I think it’s a huge challenge conditioning-wise for him. The repeat effort part of the game and the distance you’ve got to cover in the game is enormous.

He needs to play. Is he ready to play? Probably not. But he’s a wonderful league player, and he’ll have some good instincts.

“You can’t condition for that in three weeks. Given he hasn’t played any footy since early September last year and done a lot of training by himself, he’ll not be in the condition you need him to be.

“But you need him to play to get a feel for the game. That’s the bind the Force are in. He needs to play. Is he ready to play? Probably not. But he’s a wonderful league player, and he’ll have some good instincts.”

The first observation Fisher makes is that the game is so different now to the early 2000s, when the likes of Mat Rogers, Wendell Sailor and Lote Tuqiri made their high-profile switches. What these guys faced 20-plus years ago offers almost no help at all compared to the role of the outside backs in rugby now.

“I saw him interviewed, and he was saying the stuff at the breakdown was his biggest challenge,” Fisher says. “But that’s not really that hard, I don’t think, the breakdown. It’s more game sense. For wingers or full-backs, it’s their timing, and that’s where probably Joe (Suaalii) struggles at the moment.

“I mean, the big difference between league and union is he’s got to play across the whole field. So, whether he plays wing, full-back or centre, he’s playing from sideline to sideline.

“In rugby league, Lomax really only plays on a quarter of the field, maybe a third of the field, and that’s it.

“So, the amount of ground you’ve got to cover, the repeat efforts you’ve got to do, the timing and understanding in attack, the timing and comms in defence, it is just so different, and so different on his conditioning systems.”

You know he brings some really good attributes, but it’s a huge challenge with a short runway to make a fist of it in the next few games.

The communications point is a good one. Given the short time-frame involved to bring Lomax up to speed, it will fall on the Western Force players to ensure their on-field comms with Lomax and explanations of what they need from him and where they need him to be are crystal clear.

It’s also why playing him on the wing still looms as the safe option for Simon Cron. That means Lomax can at least still use the sideline to his benefit in defence, and work in from there in attack. It’s also part of the reason two NRL clubs decided he’s better on the wing than in the centres.

But like Colliss and plenty of Australian rugby fans, Fisher is intrigued to see how he goes, and how quickly he can adapt to those required nuances of rugby.

“A guy who’s played for the Kangaroos, who’s played State of Origin – he’s an elite rugby league player,” noted the veteran coach. “You know he brings some really good attributes, but it’s a huge challenge with a short runway to make a fist of it in the next few games.”

For the Western Force, and Cron in particular, so much of their future performances could depend on how well Lomax makes that switch.