There was little more Lomax could've done to hold off selection rivals Jacob Kiraz and Tom Trbojevic on Friday night, scoring twice and running for a game-high 259 metres in his only game back from injury before State of Origin teams are picked.
Parramatta's right winger showed no signs of the foot problem that had sidelined him since round five as the Eels produced their most emphatic win of the Jason Ryles era yet.
"(Lomax's) yardage carries are outstanding but you notice he's around opportunities. Things happen around him. It's good to have that back in our team," said Eels coach Ryles.
The ball is now in Daley's court as the returning Blues coach prepares to unveil his team for Origin I after this weekend's fixtures.
Ryles felt Lomax and Eels halfback Mitch Moses, who scored the first try of the night, would be up to the task of playing the series opener on May 28.
"The NSW team has got a lot of quality players, especially in the outside backs and in the halves," the eight-time Blues representative said.
"Being a New South Welshman, that's great. I won't be surprised if those two boys are named, that's for sure."
Dylan Brown set up the Eels' first try and sealed victory on a burst in the final 15 minutes, tormenting the Newcastle side who will make him the NRL's richest man next season.
It's the Knights' immediate future of most pressing concern, though.
After two weeks of improvements, the Knights' league-worst attack regressed at McDonald Jones Stadium, benefiting little from Adam O'Brien's call to parachute Tyson Gamble into the halves.
The Knights were unable to score against the NRL's worst defensive side until the final six minutes and have now been held scoreless in eight of 20 halves this season.
O'Brien was contemplative when asked whether the 15th-placed Knights were in the deepest hole of his five-and-a-half-year coaching tenure.
"How deep? I don't know. I've got plenty of shovels," he said.
"We understand that we're not in a good place but we're just going to have to work our way through it."
O'Brien said the Knights needed more from their middle forwards but admitted he was unsure exactly what had been going wrong for their attack.
"We're not firing through the middle as much as we'd like but I can't put my finger on all of it just yet," he said.
Points flowed more easily for the Eels, whose five-eighth Brown put Moses over with a cross-field kick after 10 minutes.
Lomax scored the Eels' second try after they shifted right on the back of a Junior Paulo offload and he was over again in the second half when the Eels regathered another Brown kick.
Knight second-rower Kai Pearce-Paul went to the sin bin for pushing Moses over in the ruck and, in the Eels' next attacking set, Josh Addo-Carr flew down the left edge before finding Brown on his inside.
Right winger James Schiller scored a late consolation try but it was much too late for a Knights side that has now lost seven of its past eight games.
Newcastle's Dane Gagai had a tough evening while becoming the 54th player to reach 300 games, dropping the ball twice in the first half.
Fellow Knights centre Bradman Best was a late withdrawal with a hamstring injury.
"I don't think it's great, I think it's in a real tricky spot, that's the problem," O'Brien said.
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