Outrage as Coates injury sparks latest twist in Lomax saga

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News that Xavier Coates will miss the first three months of the season has poured an industrial sized cannister of fuel on Storm’s pursuit of Zac Lomax.

Melbourne confirmed on Friday morning that their man would undergo Achilles surgery in a massive blow to their season with Eli Katoa sidelined for the entire campaign as well as the departures of Papenhuyzen and Asofa-Solomona.

Coates was the third highest try scorer in the NRL 2025 season and his absence will come as a major blow for the club. The injury also reveals why the Storm have been so relentless in their pursuit of Lomax who is currently locked in a bitter court case with his former club.

Lomax was granted a release from his Eels contract on the condition he did not sign with another NRL club; this was at a time that the winger believed he had a contract with R360.

Since the rebel league has delayed it’s inaugural season, Lomax is without a club.

Eels have rejected numerous advances by the Storm, but the Coates situation will fuel Melbourne’s desperation.

SEN’s Denan Kemp and Matty johns have called for more scrutiny to be placed on the Storm and their under-hand tactics relating to Lomax.

“It’s a huge loss,” Kemp said about Coates. “I reckon if you added up Katoa and Coates' points contribution to the Storm last year, you'd be looking at maybe 30, 40%.”

Acknowledging the injury will make Melbourne even more desperate to sign Coates, Kemp is filthy with what they have got away with so far.

“How the Storm have acted in this, with all this league stuff coming out, like the fact that they've confirmed that they were going to pay for Zach Lomax's lawyer legal fees, how that's not in the salary cap, I don't know.

“If you found out that a club was paying for a guy's house, would we all be sitting there going like if you come to the club we'll pay for your house?

“We’d be all going, yeah, nah, no worries, cos like what are we talking about here?

“Then the text to the CEO, I cannot believe there are still some people going, ‘oh, they get texts all the time’.

“To text a CEO and say ‘apply the blowtorch’, it'd be like another CEO texting the NRL CEO and going, ‘oi, get a, get a ref to give us a try’.

“It has to go on the cap, it's outrageous that that that this is how brazen they are to get a guy that is the Eels are saying no, like it's not even like a guy that.

“It's a clear definite no from the Eels, and they're basically saying we'll exert so much pressure that you're forced to just like agree to whatever we want.

“It’s outrageous, I cannot believe it.

“I can't believe it's not a bigger story.”