Name John Lomax | Role Rugby league | |
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John Junior Lomax (born 2 February 1966) is a New Zealand former rugby league player who represented his country. He is the brother of another international, David Lomax.
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Early years
Lomax grew up playing rugby league for the Wainuiomata Lions in the Wellington Rugby League competition and also represented Wellington at a provincial level.
During the 1992 season he lined up alongside three of his brothers; Tony, David and Arnold, for Wellington against Bay of Plenty. All four brothers also played for the Lions that year in their 25-18 national club grand final win over the Northcote Tigers. In 1993 he was invited to be part of an Auckland Invitational XIII side that drew 16-all with the Balmain Tigers.
Playing career
In 1993 Lomax moved to Australia, joining the Canberra Raiders. He was selected to go on the 1993 New Zealand rugby league tour of Great Britain and France, playing in all five test matches.
Lomax won the Raiders' player of the year award in 1994. He missed the 1994 grand final due to suspension. Lomax played in sixty five games for the club before he moved to the North Queensland Cowboys, where he was named player of the year in 1998. Near the end of his career Lomax also spent a season with the Melbourne Storm.
Lomax is associated with the series of events which ended the career of Parramatta Eels rugby league player Adam Ritson. Following a high tackle from Lomax in 1996 which knocked 20-year-old Ritson out, an ensuing routine scan discovered that Ritson had a life-threatening brain cyst from which he would never fully recover.
Representative career
In 1990 he represented the New Zealand Māori against Great Britain. He later played at the 1992 Pacific Cup.
Lomax was a New Zealand international between 1993 and 1998. He played in fifteen tests for the Kiwis, including at the 1995 World Cup.
Later years
After retirement, Lomax became an organiser for the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union in Australia. In 2015, he was arrested and charged with blackmail during the Royal Commission into trade union governance and corruption. In October 2015, ACT prosecutors dropped the blackmail charge against him.
Honours
In 2012 he was named in the Wellington Rugby League's Team of the Century.