Leading rugby league commentators have warned NRL players against taking strike action for Round 1, with one declaring “they’re dumb enough to do it”.
The ongoing Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) dispute between the NRL and the players threatens to drag into the season proper as the two parties haggle over the finer details of the agreement.
An in-principle agreement for NRLW financial terms was recently reached between the game and its players, but the men’s competition is yet to settle on an agreement.
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The NRL cancelled its official season launch on Wednesday as a means to avoid any unnecessary further friction with the players, given talks had been progressing well in recent days.
Players including Panthers halfback Nathan Cleary, have said they are prepared to sit out NRL games if the league doesn’t come to the party in the CBA negotiations.
With every passing day, the likelihood of a player strike gradually increases.
It would be an unmitigated disaster for the game, with Round 1 to kick off on Thursday, March 2.
Rugby league commentator and NRL 360 host, Paul Kent, slammed the players pushing for strike action, saying he believes they are already trying to take too much of the pie.
“I don’t think the players are doing themselves any favours,” Kent told news.com.au.
“What the NRL has already agreed upon is more than fair and I think every dollar they take from here on is to the detriment of the game overall. The game’s dying in the bush, it’s dying around A grade, they’re all under threat from other codes, sponsors are under threat from other codes.
“There’s so much more ways for people to spend their money these days.
“One of the few ways rugby league gets a big share of revenue is through the broadcast deal and the players seem to think it all belongs to them when in fact not one of them has got to NRL without playing for a junior club somewhere.”
A sticking point in the CBA negotiations appears to be the players’ desire for guaranteed security and health insurance for the years after they retire, to compensate for the battering they take on the field.
But Kent, who wrote about the issue in a recent column for The Daily Telegraph, believes players are already well compensated through their salaries to the point they can fund their own post-career care.
“I just think it’s outrageous to be really honest,” he said.
“I think part of the reason they’re so well rewarded now is so they can do that themselves, set up their own future.
“I don’t know of another union or company anywhere in the world where you are still responsible for people’s healthcare long after you’ve left the company. If there’s one around, show me — I don’t know where it is, I haven’t heard of it.
“It is unrealistic. What players have got to understand is part of the reason they are paid so well now is because of that risk that they take.
“That’s why every boxer gets in the ring knowing there’s going to be health concerns. But they do it because they back themselves to some day make the money out of it to make it all worthwhile.
“If these guys don’t want to play NRL and put up with the collisions and the force, and they just want to play rugby league like they, go and play in the bush.
“Go and play somewhere else where the collisions aren’t as violent. You won’t be paid as well.
“The reason you’re not paid as well is that’s part of why you’re paid now. It’s because of that risk and that danger factor in the game. That’s the brutal truth of it.”
Kent believes there’s a real chance the players could strike and there could be no football played in Round 1 next weekend.
“I think they’re dumb enough to do it,” he said.
“I think the NRL are confident it’ll be resolved and they’re trying to do that to head it off because they don’t want it to get to that situation (of striking).
“There are other risks to the game as well. A lot of sponsors are watching this now and if the players strike, they’ll probably withdraw their sponsorship.
“That’ll then affect the funding to a certain degree, which in reality should affect the players’ own earning capacity.
“I don’t know how the broadcasters would respond if they had not football to show Round 1. I’m sure there’d be some sort of financial penalty there. Clearly the players wouldn’t get paid.
“I don’t know if all the players are aware of the full ramifications of what they’re threatening. If they were fully informed, and I don’t believe they are, then I don’t think they’d be as militant as they are.”
Fox League’s Matty Johns backed the players for “having a voice” but said there was a risk the ongoing CBA dispute would frustrate rugby league fans.
“I absolutely believe the players should be entitled to what they can because you don’t have a long time in the game and it’s a game that costs at a cost physically,” Johns told news.com.au.
“But I don’t want to get to the point where the fans are going, ‘Oh my god, what is going on here?’ Because I think there’s a bit of that.
“I remember during the Super League, there was so much talk about money that people started falling out of love with the game.
“I love the fact the players have got a voice, just got to make sure it doesn’t spill over to the fans. That’s the crucial thing.”
Asked about the possibility of a Round 1 strike, Johns, who has two sons playing in the NRL, said: “I’m certain the players have enough respect for the fans that that won’t happen.”
