Ricky Stuart maintains the RLPA used NRL players in their game-day media boycott as tensions continue to rise around collective bargaining agreement talks.
NRL players will shun media commitments on match days with the union demanding the game’s administrators meet with them and an industrial relations mediator.
More money is not the issue, the RLPA says, but there are concerns over specific areas of the pay deal including managing its own funds and the NRL’s ability to lengthen the season without approval.
The boycott is a fresh setback in protracted negotiations that have rumbled on for 20 months, with Canberra boss Stuart blasting the latest move saying it hurts the game.
“It's not your (the media’s) fault they can't be in agreement,” he said.
“I feel sorry for the players because I believe if you spoke to 95 per cent of the players they wouldn't even know why they're not allowed to talk to the media.
“I think they've been used and it's wrong because there's young boys there that have no idea why it's there, and I just think they've been used in this regard.
“We've got very strong leadership, they know what's right for the game.
“They should be running the game, not the players.”
Coaches will continue to front media before and after games but their players will not with all male and female players to boycott all commitments from Thursday onwards, including next week's State of Origin III.
When suggested the players were biting the hand that feeds them by turning their back on the media, RLPA boss Clint Newton admitted it was a risk but reiterated they wanted independent mediation and were not killing talks altogether.
“You can't just take action without first of all being pushed into it,” he told SEN.
“I don't know what the other alternative is when the other party have said ‘take it or leave it’.
“We're not negotiating anymore, there is no way around finding trade offs. ... we're not looking at problem solving.
“I'm not quite sure what the other alternative is, unless you want to accept a sub-standard deal.”
Newton outlined a number of the players’ key concerns, including questioning the fairness of the NRL’s proposed agreement and the perceived ultimatum.
“Do you think it's fair the NRL can add more matches into the season without the agreement of players?” he asked.
“Do you think the NRL should control and sell player data and personal information without complying with privacy law?
“To control how much money the players distribute to the funds that they have established?
“Do we think the NRL reducing the way in which they report on their financials year after there was a failure to properly disclose $28 million that was owed to players (is fair)?
“There's an impasse, but we are saying there is a way forward.”
