At 6:20pm on Sunday night, on the eve of the first hearing in the Zac Lomax court case, Melbourne finally sharpened their pencil.

Storm chief executive Justin Rodski picked up the phone, rang Parramatta counterpart Jim Sarantinos and made an offer that seemingly couldn’t be refused. In exchange for the Eels releasing Lomax, Melbourne would pay out the remainder of Ryan Matterson’s contract – all $416,000 of it.

And as a further sweetener to end the stalemate – and to prevent everyone’s dirty laundry being aired in the Supreme Court – the Storm even threw in an extra $300,000 transfer fee.

To afford such a move and remain under the salary cap, the Storm had to be creative. That meant delaying Lomax’s debut until later in the season, paying him less than originally agreed or a combination of the two. It was a price everyone was willing to pay.

Finally, after months of argy-bargy and hundreds of thousands of wasted legal fees, everyone was on the same page. Except for Matterson.

To be fair, this was not a mess of Matterson’s making. Nor should he have been responsible for solving it. But at about 10:30am on Monday, after the first of three hearing adjournments that day, news filtered through that Matterson wouldn’t shift unless Melbourne would take him for 2027 as well. The deal was dead.

Zac Lomax leaves the Supreme Court on Monday.Credit: AAP

In a last-minute bid to salvage the situation, the Storm offered Parramatta a $750,000 transfer. Coincidentally, that was the same sum Sonny Bill Williams paid to be released from his Canterbury contract to join French rugby club Toulon in 2008. However, the Eels were never going to countenance any proposal that didn’t strengthen their roster.

“We’ve always maintained that if we get the right football outcome out of a deal, then we will do that deal,” Sarantinos said.

© Brisbane Times