The NRL's players are prepared to shun game-day media commitments for months and will not rule out further strike action as part of drastic measures the players association hopes will lead to a resolution in protracted collective bargaining agreement talks with the NRL.
Media strikes announced by the RLPA at an emergency press conference on Wednesday mean male and female players will boycott all game-day media commitments from July 6 and until further notice, including for Wednesday's final State of Origin match.
The NRL's coaches are still expected to front the media as normal, with players available on days when games are not played.
The RLPA says these conditions will remain in place until the completion of a draft CBA, until the warring NRL and PA meet with an industrial relations mediator and until player benefits and support payments return to pre-COVID levels agreed under the previous CBA.
More than 50 players from the 17 clubs met on Tuesday night to discuss the laggard CBA, now eight months overdue.
Chief executive Clint Newton said they were prepared to take more action if their demands were not met.
"Our leadership group met and they discussed that this could go on," he said.
"The players have shown tremendous patience and good will through this process but their trust and resolve have been tested time and time again. I want to be clear that we have been forced into this position.
"Players are reasonable but ultimately we have to put everything on the table.
"We are hopeful and we remain optimistic about reaching an agreement."
Fronting the media in response to the strike, NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo maintained the league had acted in good faith during negotiations.
"It's disappointing whenever we talk about restricting the access the fans have to hear from their heroes," he said.
"We have spent thousands of collective hours listening and problem-solving."
In total, the warring parties have been negotiating the new CBA for 20 months, with the current agreement only able to roll over until October 31 of this year.
The RLPA had been hopeful of reaching an agreement with the NRL by the end of May after presenting the league with a settlement proposal but talks once again hit an impasse.
The RLPA is no longer aggrieved as to player wages or the salary cap, with the NRL proposing an overall increase in player payments of 37 per cent, an immediate 25.4 increase in the salary cap and an increased minimum wage of $150,000.
Current concerns lie with more specific areas of the CBA, which contains over 100 different items.
These include the RLPA wanting full autonomy around managing it own funds, which are dispensed to retired players in distress and those suffering from the effects of long-term injuries, among others.
The RLPA also has concerns over the NRL's ability to increase the length of the season without approval and the players' ownership and autonomous access to their own data, including medical records.
Abdo said the only restriction the NRL and Australian Rugby League Commission wanted to place on the RLPA's funds was that governance measures be implemented to ensure money could not be funnelled away from their beneficiaries, and to the RLPA itself.
As it stands, the NRL is only able to increase the length of the season by one to two games without approval.
Despite Abdo's concerns, South Sydney prop and RLPA representative Thomas Burgess believed fans would still feel connected to the players despite the media blackout.
"This is not about turning our back on the fans at all," he said.
"We've got our social media, we're involved in that.
"We want a deal done, we want to go back to normal. But we've been backed into a corner here."
Abdo said the league had yet to determine its next move, including whether players' wages could be docked while paying broadcasters had their access restricted, and the extent to which the CBA will continue to be renegotiated.
"We believe our offer was a fair one," he said.
"We believe it did accommodate the major concerns that have been raised but that's now up to the Commission (ARLC) as to what happens next."
Australian Associated Press
