Zac Lomax could be an asset for the Wallabies at next year's Rugby World Cup, but he faces the steepest code switch learning curve since Benji Marshall's failed move to the Blues 12 years ago.
After months of back-and-forth, first with Rugby Australia and then the Melbourne Storm, the Parramatta Eels and even head office at the NRL, Lomax was left with little choice but to try his hand at rugby.
When the Eels held firm on the terms of his contract release, only eventually reducing his NRL exclusion by one year to the end of 2027, and no other NRL clubs came knocking outside of the Storm, Lomax had to walk, hat in hand, back to Moore Park.
The fact that RA boss Phil Waugh hasn't cut a big fat cheque for the wantaway NRL star, or at least a deal like that which saw Angus Crichton sign on for a code switch, is a testament to the chief executive's mantra of fiscal responsibility in Australian rugby's "reset".
The difference between Lomax and Angus Crichton, whose own code swap was announced in January, is that the Roosters star's rugby pedigree is undeniable. He was a schoolboy powerhouse in Sydney.
But Lomax's junior rugby experience came to an end at 15, three years earlier than Crichton. From that age onwards, Lomax played rugby league alone, he confirmed on Tuesday.
So when he takes to the field for Western Force, 11 years will have passed since he last played rugby union.
That is a long time to not have put your head in a ruck, cleaned out an opposition defender, or played without the safety of knowing that when tackled, you can simply stand up and roll the ball under your foot.
Isolation can be your greatest friend in rugby league, but the absolute devil in rugby union.
And so the 26-year-old's switch looks akin to that faced by Marshall in 2014, though the Wests Tigers great was attempting the transition in the halves.
Ultimately Marshall later revealed he never really wanted to leave rugby league. Given his recent attempts to join the Storm, the same could be said of Lomax.
But the former Dragons and Eels winger will at least have fewer hurdles than Marshall to confront from the outside backs, but his lack of familiarity with rugby, and length of time from which he last played, suggests his transition will be anything but straightforward.
And Lomax knows it.
"I just want to understand the game from all different aspects," Lomax said on Tuesday. "And I know it's a mountain that I'm at the bottom of and I really want to climb and become the best rugby union player that I possibly can."
Lomax does possess the raw physical traits and skill set that could catapult him into World Cup contention if that transition goes smoothly, but he won't be a walk-up start to the Wallabies as one prominent NRL media figure suggested on Monday.
Where Lomax could prove useful is in the air, an area that has become a virtual fourth set-piece in rugby since the change in law interpretation on escort runners. With chasing players now given a virtual clean path to an aerial contest, international rugby is increasingly being fought in the air.
And that's where the Wallabies were woeful last spring, no place more so than Twickenham when England feasted on the scraps of Australia's high-ball horrors.
Lomax, meanwhile, has proven himself an aerial threat in the NRL and State of Origin, his work for NSW from the cross-kicks of Nathan Cleary and Mitchell Moses vital in the Blues' 2024 series win.
And while his goal-kicking record slipped to 74% in his first and now only season with the Eels in 2025, it was 80% at the Dragons one season earlier. Lomax has also kicked pressure goals at Origin level, including one vital sideline penalty in the second half of the Blues' Game III triumph in 2024.
If Lomax can rediscover at least an 80% accuracy mark, then he could prove to be a key inclusion in the Wallabies 23, particularly if Carter Gordon cements himself as Australia's first-choice No. 10.
And the more backline depth the better for incoming Wallabies boss Les Kiss.
"Zac's ability under a high ball is seen as pretty favourable," RA director of high performance Peter Horne said. "At the moment we see that the game has actually slightly shifted, the ability to kick and be able to retain possession or put pressure on the opposition is important, and that's a point of difference that Zac brings.
"The ability to actually goal-kick is also important for us... that is going to not only help the Force, but an opportunity to have another kicker, but more broadly having good quality kickers in the system, will be good for Joe [Schmidt] and Les."
Those potential outcomes are a way down the road. In the meantime, there are people lining up to say Lomax's code switch winds up just like Marshall's -- back in rugby league.