Rugby League Players Association president Ian Prendergast believes a pay deal must be struck before the NRL finals, as strike action continues to loom over the game.
Almost 300 players were presented with the NRL’s latest collective bargaining agreement offer in Sydney on Monday night.
While progress was made, there are still a number of sticking points between the players and the league including a shared revenue stream.
Asked on Fox Sports’ League Life if a deal should be reached before the finals, Prendergast said: “I think we need to.”
“There’s a commitment over the next couple of weeks and hopefully we’ve got a deal in principle which we were hoping to deliver to players at the mass meeting on Monday but we weren’t quite there.”
The RLPA has warned boycotts could begin by skipping commercial activities through next month’s finals series, including the captain’s call and the Dally M awards ceremony.
While Prendergast is hopeful it won’t come to that, the union is refusing to soften its position on industrial action.
“I don’t think Todd (NRL CEO Todd Greenberg) would allow that to happen because the Dally M is a celebration of the players’ performance throughout the year,” he said.
“I would hate to see that happen and I don’t think it will, but we’d have to consider that at the appropriate time.”
He said the main focus would be securing more time with the NRL to get the deal done in the next couple of weeks.
Negotiations have dragged on for 14 months with a October 31 deadline in mind.
Prendergast said discussions had been more productive since Greenberg had got involved, but it would be disappointing if the NRL’s current offer was final.
“Particularly since Todd’s been involved in recent weeks,” Prendergast said.
At work
Roar Rookie
I don't believe in players giving access to bank and phone records, but I think the NRL needs to stay strong here and renegotiate to a lower number. The NRL would probably prefer to not host the Dally M's, it would save them money and is really only there for the players.
up in the north
Roar Rookie
I believe it's the base wages for the majority of players, which is too low. Every side has their $1m man, but the bulk of the squads are made up of kids on bugger all. The issue of an insurance fund is also important and needs to be sorted. As far as transparency of financial records goes, if it's done confidentially then it could work, but the leaking of a persons personal business affairs to the public is plain wrong. The players united will never be divided.
John
Guest
Seems like each time the players are pissed off at something they are all too willing to boycott the Dally M's, shows you how much they care about the event.
Bigj
Guest
My bad one too many zeros its only 77 000.
Rob
Guest
Your overpaid or dodgy as he'll bigJ.
BigJ
Roar Guru
Jeez i wisk i could have the ordaserty to whinge about earn 120 grand per year. Oh well i guess i just have to stick to whinging about only earning 770000 a year
Andrew
Guest
They don't want the game to have access to their bank records, well that is fine, we will have to ban gambling then, in which case the game loses a big chunk of sponsorship money, so the salary cap will have to come down. Is that okay players?... whats that, you changed your mind? You're okay with checking your bank records in the case of an investigation... Oh good.
Rob
Guest
Some times people need to just stop and appreciate what they have. Obviously everyone is entitled to a fair share and the players should be rewarded for their work but I hate sporting profesionals threatening strike action. At the end of the day it's a game that they can earn very good coin by doing well. It's the fans that pay at the end of the day. I still love barracking for my team(Cowboys) even if they recieved 50% of what they are currently paid and are having a go. Better than watching blokes getting 1million bucks a year dropping footballs, throwing stupid passes, not chasing in defence and missing tackles. Then get the coach. The game owes them nothing and i'm sure the current pay they recieve gives them a comfortable return for the work involved. If they believe they can do better in the money department take up a job in the real world. Most are no more skilled than players 20 years ago in my opinion.