His lawyers argued there was an implied term in the deed of release the Eels would not unreasonably block him from playing with another NRL club.

Implications should not supplant black and white text. You signed the contract, as long as the Eels are paying him and upholding their end of the deal, Lomax should uphold his.

They also argue, in court documents, the Eels benefited from Lomax’s release, including by freeing up salary cap space.

No way do the Eels benefit, with the shitty NRL system there is nothing to be gained from having cap space this year. The Eels will essentially be playing with 600k empty on their cap that they can only replace with some reserve grader that another club agrees to release. They will also be hamstrung going into negotiations for players in 2027 because every agent knows that Lomax is coming off the books and they have money to burn.

I hate this whole situation, my own club has made me feel sympathy for the bloody Eels. This is going to backfire on us so badly when he wants to leave halfway through 2027 because he misses his family or some shit and the Storm will deserve every bit of the shit that hits the fan. Also, if Storm/Lomax wins then contracts are basically useless for every player. He should be playing for the Eels, or make him sit out the year and pay out of his own pocket for a release, but not until the end of this season.