Wayne Bennett has slammed the current player transfer system amid renewed calls for specified NRL trade windows to be introduced to stop the spate of mid-season moves.
Bennett told The Daily Telegraph the current system is “a joke” and in desperate need of an overhaul to stop players jumping ship at a moment’s notice.
The current system allows inter-club transfers after the season has started through until the 1st of August.
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Trade windows would strictly allow player movements during specific periods likely for a month in the off-season and for a designated month during the season, as opposed to clubs signing rival stars up to 16 months before they can actually play for the team.
Bennett has support from a number of powerful figures in the game, including Bulldogs boss Phil Gould, but the players aren’t of the same mindset believing it is a restriction of trade.
“I am a fan of anything that will improve what we do now,” Bennett said.
“What we do now is a joke.
“It is not about the player not getting traded. It is just in an orderly fashion which presents a much better picture and image for the game then a player being at a club today and gone tomorrow. It can’t happen.
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“It has got to stop. Even soccer, as highly competitive as it is and particularly in Europe and those places, they have still got trade windows.
“There is nothing more disappointing for me to see a player playing for one club today and then he races out and plays against that same club for another club two weeks later.
“And I don’t see where you get disadvantaged. You can still be traded. It just can’t happen willy-nilly. I am not blaming players here.
“I’m blaming clubs. The clubs have got the contracts. They don’t have to let them go. But it is the clubs that usually initiate it.”
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Trade windows would put the breaks on endless mid-season loans like the one that saw David Nofoaluma join the Storm on a short-term deal last season.
Bennett is not a fan of strong clubs cherrypicking talent from weaker clubs when they face injury crisis’ mid-season.
“This player movement is about once the competition starts,” Bennet said.
“What you do in the off-season you can still do as far as I’m concerned.
“But when the season starts it shouldn’t just happen all the time.”
The NRL and the RLPA are currently negotiating a new CBA, with trade windows set to be discussed directly between the two parties, before the current deal expires within the fortnight.
