Storm coach Craig Bellamy says it’s a “shame” that Zac Lomax has left the NRL to sign with Super Rugby side the Western Force after a drawn-out contract dispute and a blocked move to Melbourne.

Lomax on Monday inked a two-year deal with the Force and declared his desire to represent Australia at the 2027 World Cup during a lengthy media conference on Tuesday.

Melbourne had tried to sign the former rep star after he was granted a release by the Eels just one season into a four-year deal under the assumption that he was joining rebel competition R360.

But the decision to delay that league until 2028 left him in limbo, with a clause in his release explicitly barring him from signing with a rival NRL club without Parramatta’s permission.

That ultimately scuppered his move to Melbourne despite the Storm offering financial compensation to the Eels.

“It’s a shame that we lost him,” Bellamy said.

“I don’t really know what happened at the end there, but I can understand his frustration and I can understand him leaving our game.

“That doesn’t make me feel better about it.

“I think we’ve lost one hell of a player to another code when we didn’t really have to. But even more importantly, we lost a really good person in our code.”

Lomax would’ve provided some all-star class to the Storm backline, although the early signs suggest they’ll be fine without him after Bellamy continued his incredible round 1 unbeaten record with a thumping win over the Eels.

Sua Fa’alogo was fantastic at fullback as the club moves on from Ryan Papenhuyzen, who retired from rugby league last year, with a major off-season change helping the young gun convince Bellamy that he deserved the spot.

“The big improvement in Sua’s overall being here is that he’s fit this year,” the veteran coach said.

“I’m not quite sure with his mindset last year whether he thought he was fit enough, but you’ve probably got to be the fittest guy in the team to play fullback. That’s the toughest position to play physically with the endurance.

“He came back a lot fitter this year, and I think that’s been the difference.

“We’ve given him first shot at it, but we’ve got a few other guys in our squad that can play fullback, so he’s not going to rest on his laurels.”

The Storm faces a tricky trip to Wollongong to take on the Dragons who were unlucky to lose in golden point to the Bulldogs in Las Vegas.

The Red V have given the Storm plenty of headaches recently, with the Dragons winning their past two including a gritty victory in the wet 12 months ago.

“They are a good side, they’re a big physical side,” Bellamy said, with Dragons duo Clint Gutherson and Damien Cook high on his radar.

“We’ll need to defend a lot better than we did last week, and hopefully we can do that.

“They’ve got some good players in that side and some good halves, and they’ve got good experience in the spine with Gutherson and Cook at fullback and dummy-half, so they’ve got the brains there as well.”