Cooper Cronk has delivered a blunt assessment of Zac Lomax's early-season stint at centre, declaring the Eels recruit is “a winger every day of the week and twice on Sundays” and urging Parramatta to reconsider their positional gamble.

Lomax arrived at the Eels ahead of the 2025 season intent on cementing a centre role after years of shifting between the wing and outside back spots at the Dragons.

Parramatta accommodated that ambition, handing him the No.4 jersey from Round 1. But after four games, Cronk has seen enough.

“His performances on the wing at rep level or at different stages have been top shelf,” Cronk said on Fox.

“But defensively, if you want to be a dominant centre in this competition, you have to defend better than Zac has.”

The former Kangaroos and Maroons halfback didn't mince words as he dissected two critical defensive moments involving Lomax, both of which led to tries.

In Round 1 against Melbourne, Cronk pointed to Lomax's “tunnel vision” for his opposite number, which opened a lane for Cameron Munster to slice through, suggesting that his poor vision in defence would be a target for opposition teams.

The pattern repeated against Manly. “He only had eyes for Turbo here,” Cronk explained as vision of a Manly try was shown to viewers.

“Comes out of the line, which completely opens up a passageway for Ben Trbojevic.”

While Lomax's effort and athleticism haven't been questioned, Cronk believes he's fundamentally miscast as a centre because of what the role demands defensively.

“The centre is the decision maker defensively, whether they go up or out and the winger follows,” he said.

“The reason why he's better on the wing is because he follows what someone else does in terms of making decisions.”

For Parramatta, the issue now becomes whether they stick with the plan that lured Lomax from Wollongong or pivot back to the structure that made him a NSW Origin squad member in the first place.

“I know he wants to play centre,” Cronk acknowledged, “but you don't play centre making defensive decisions like that.”

According to Cronk, the decision that Jason Ryles has to make couldn't be clearer.

“He's shown me things that he is a winger every day of the week and twice on Sundays at the moment.”