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........

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