The chance of a player strike over the ongoing stalled collective bargaining agreement negotiations between the Rugby League Players Association and the NRL seems to be growing.
The deal, which was supposed to be locked away by last October, is still being negotiated, with a number of key sticking points.
They include the women's game and the hardship fund for players after they retire, while other problems around salary cap also exist.
The NRL and RLPA have been at loggerheads for months over the deal, with neither side seemingly conceding ground on the future of the sport.
As it stands, the NRL trials and All Stars game this weekend will go ahead, although the threat of boycotts for trial games, and protests over pre-season media commitments, has been part and parcel.
It's not believed players will strike during the regular season, but RLPA delegate and Parramatta Eels' star second-rower Shaun Lane refused to rule it out when talking to AAP.
โI think everyone's hopeful of a resolution soon but, whether it's realistic or not, I'm not too sure,โ Lane told AAP on Tuesday.
โIt's dragged on for way too long. It should have been handled six months ago and obviously it's heading to a time where some action may need to be taken in order to finally resolve the conflict and get what we need to get out of this bargain.
โA strike is probably the last thing that everyone wants to occur and obviously understanding the best interests for all the stakeholders in the game โ players, clubs, the NRL, fans, sponsors โ the last thing that anyone wants to happen is to strike and for footy to be cancelled.
โSo we've tried to do everything that we can to signify that we don't want to do that and that we want to resolve these negotiations before it gets to that point.
โBut unfortunately you've seen historically sometimes these things need to occur.
โI guess if it does get to that point then we will be willing to do whatever's necessary.โ
The NRL announced a new salary cap in December with record increases for both the men's and women's game, however, that was almost immediately trashed by the RLPA.
Things have only seemed to go downhill since then, with the two organisations locked in never-ending negotiations.
The first NRL trial will be played in Auckland on Thursday night between the New Zealand Warriors and Wests Tigers.
