Zac Lomax has avoided disciplinary action from the NRL's match review committee despite being placed on report for an incident of dangerous contact during the Dragons' dominant win over the Tigers on Friday night.
Lomax collided mid-air with winger Solomon Alaimalo in the 63rd minute while contesting a high ball. The young rookie Tiger landed awkwardly on his head, leading to his departure from the game due to a category one concussion. He will also miss the Tigers' upcoming fixture against the Titans.
As the Dragons held a comfortable lead, Lomax aggressively pursued Ben Hunt's kick from the middle of the field, with the Tigers acutely aware of his ability to outleap for possession. On this occasion however, Lomax clipped the legs of teammate Raymond Faitala-Mariner and his leap was stunted, resulting in an inadvertent collision with Alaimalo's midriff.
After the game, Dragons' coach Shane Flanagan defended Lomax, referring only to his commitment to taking the catch.
"He was contesting the ball, you know. He only had eyes for the football. We've seen Zac, I could give you 20 of them this year that he just has eyes for the football and goes through and jumps and is in a contest. Unfortunately, this just went wrong, you know. But I don't think he did anything wrong. It's unfortunate," Flanagan explained.
Following a review by the NRL Match Review Committee on Saturday morning, no charges were laid against Lomax for his involvement in the incident.
Other than the on-report incident, the night was an impressive one for Lomax and the Red V.
Just two days after his impressive debut for NSW in the State of Origin, he delivered an individual record outing for the Dragons with 32 points, scoring three tries and successfully converting ten goals out of ten attempts. He also ran for 184 metres.
His Origin debut included a try and 224 run metres.
The Dragons are set to face Manly at 4 Pines Park next Sunday, coinciding with the announcement of Michael Maguire's squad for Origin 2 later that evening.
