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As the NRL and the players’ union bunkered down for three days of emergency talks over pay and conditions, some club bosses predicted a collective bargaining agreement would not be signed before the start of the season – and perhaps not ever.
NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo and Rugby League Players’ Association counterpart Clint Newton met on Tuesday in a bid to thrash out their differences in the bitter and protracted dispute, on the same day as they lambasted each other in the media for holding up the process.
Both parties were tight-lipped on Tuesday evening but sources with knowledge of the situation, who spoke anonymously because of the meeting’s confidential nature, said the sole focus so far had been the women’s game. NRLW players have been training without contracts because the salary cap for the women’s competition is unknown.
Abdo and Newton are scheduled to meet again on Wednesday and Thursday, although several club bosses contacted by the Herald believe the impasse won’t be resolved before round one.
The players’ union has not ruled out the possibility of strike action should the delays continue, but the clubs are anticipating that the regular season – and the NRL’s new pre-season tournament – will go ahead as scheduled.
“The players won’t do anything that hurts the game,” said one senior club administrator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid his club being caught up in the dispute. “I can’t see this being resolved prior to round one. But the players don’t want to hurt the fans. They won’t be sitting out games.”
NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo and RLPA boss Clint Newton.Credit:Getty, Getty
Another club boss, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: “I’m going to make a bold prediction – the CBA will never get signed. The last CBA was never signed, it was never agreed. People forget that. It didn’t matter, we went ahead with what was agreed upon, the money got paid and it all went ahead. There was a heads of agreement, and that was it.”
Abdo said in an interview with the Herald on Monday that the NRL would not cave in to all of the RLPA’s demands, declaring: “We can’t send the game bankrupt.” Newton, meanwhile, said the RLPA had not been granted a single in-person meeting to bargain individual claims.