In a week's time, the door for NRL players to change clubs immediately will slam shut for the remainder of this season.
In a perfect world, just maybe the NRL would have a proper mid-season trade window set up.
In the world we currently live in, teams are allowed to trade, or ship players elsewhere to another club effective immediately, but only up until June 30.
It means mid-season shuffles are quite rare in the NRL, unlike in other competitions around the world. Just look at the NBA in the USA, or the English Premier League in England.
Mid-season trade windows and deadlines are part of the theatre of those competitions.
Australian sport in general, when you look at it through a broader scope, have never really operated that way.
But there is still the option for players not getting minutes and out of a club's future plans to head elsewhere.
And some surely must be pushing for it.
After scouring the rosters, playing time and the competition in general, here are the five players who it would make more than just a little bit of sense to be knocking on their current head of recruitment's door this week to see if they can find a new one by this time next week.
4. Matthew Arthur (Newcastle Knights)
Matthew Arthur, who dominated when playing for the NSW under-19 outfit in 2024, is an exceptional talent, and has been rated as one of the best young hookers in the game. Certainly, in his age group.
But he has struggled for game time at the top grade.
Now 21, Arthur debuted in 2024 and played three games for the Parramatta Eels at NRL level, but beyond that, he managed just two games for the Knights last year and is yet to feature this year.
The Knights are well set at hooker ahead of him, with Harrison Graham showing plenty off the bench, while Phoenix Crossland is going nowhere as far as the starting role is concerned.
With his path blocked in Newcastle, he may be looking for another club to show off with.
Can’t fault the selections, Scott, but the big problem is not the lack of a transfer window, it’s the lack of a proper transfer mechanism.
Of PVL wants to do something really useful for the NRL he should stop tinkering with the playing rules, and put his mind to designing a transfer system, getting it reviewed by the fans, the press and the RLPA (who will hate it on principle) and get it it revised and implemented by the end of the season.
Scott – separate comment, unrelated to this article – but I have no other way of contacting you.
Zero Tackle has recently changed its user interface.
One of the changes – and this will be an unanticipated bug – is that when leaving a comment the system will sometimes flush the comment when the author has paused for reflection, part way through entering his text. This never happened before.
Maybe you have introduced AI to assess the quality of the opinions, and delete the ones you think are unworthy of acceptance ! Somehow, I think not
Anyway, this has happened to me three or four times this morning, and I’m drawing it to your attention.
Regards.