The Rugby League Players Association have reportedly put a new Friday deadline in front of the NRL as Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations continue between the waring parties.
The agreement, which was supposed to be signed off on last October, has continued to drag on in negotiations between the two parties over a number of key sticking points.
They currently include the finances of the women's game, the hardship fund for players post-retirement, and the RLPA being able to control their own funds, among others.
The RLPA had previously threatened a Thursday deadline as the negotiations continued, with NRL trials set to be impacted this weekend by the covering up of NRL logos, players abandoning media commitments at games, and kick-off times being delayed.
None of that took place on Thursday though when the New Zealand Warriors and Wests Tigers opened the competition's new pre-season challenge, which has $100,000 in prizemoney on the line for the winners under an initiative new ladder scoring system, which rewards teams for attacking play.
The NRL said positive ground had been made on the negotiation front on Thursday, however, the RLPA are reportedly still setting a Friday deadline, with AAP and The Sydney Morning Herald both suggesting the double-header in Gosford could be impacted.
The Manly Sea Eagles will play the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the first game at 5:55pm (AEDT), before the Cronulla Sharks play the Newcastle Knights.
Up until now, only pre-season NRL-affiliated media promotional commitments have been protested by players, but games could well start to become impacted from Friday if more ground isn't made in the negotiations, with RLPA boss Clint Newton expected to meet NRL CEO Andrew Abdo again during the day.
Canterbury Bulldogs dummy half Reed Mahoney confirmed the NRLW players being fairly represented in the CBA was a key sticking point, and revealed that striking was not off the table.
"That (striking) can be what can happen, but hopefully we don't get that far," Mahoney said.
"It's been a long process and there's quite a battle on, as players, we're united and we're standing tall for what we believe is right.
"We hope the NRL can come to the party as well and we can move on so we can play the game that we love."
It's understood that unless more ground is made, the season launch is unlikely to go ahead in a fortnight, although some players are believed to have privately ruled out the idea of striking, not wanting to hurt fans.
The NRL season itself is due to kick-off on Thursday, March 2 when the Parramatta Eels host the Melbourne Storm.
