Dolphins head coach Wayne Bennett has joined the voices of those saying that the NRL's free agency policies which players currently operate by should be revised into trade windows.
The current system allows inter-club transfers after the season has started to the 1st of August. Trade windows would strictly allow player movements during specific periods a supposed to clubs signing rival stars up t0 16 months before they lace a boot for their side.
Many involved with the game, including prominent figures like Phil Gould, agree with Bennett, however the players aren't of the same mindset.
Speaking toย The Daily Telegraph, Bennett conveyed that it is time for the players and the NRL to work together to find a fairer solution for all parties.
โI am a fan of anything that will improve what we do now,โ Bennett said.
โWhat we do now is a joke.
โIt is not about the player not getting traded. It is just in an orderly fashion which presents a much better picture and image for the game then a player being at a club today and gone tomorrow. It can't happen.
โIt has got to stop. Even soccer, as highly competitive as it is and particularly in Europe and those places, they have still got trade windows.
โThere is nothing more disappointing for me to see a player playing for one club today and then he races out and plays against that same club for another club two weeks.
โAnd I don't see where you get disadvantaged. You can still be traded. It just can't happen willy-nilly. I am not blaming players here.
โI'm blaming clubs. The clubs have got the contracts. They don't have to let them go. But it is the clubs that usually initiate it.โ
Calls for action reignited last season when David Nofoaluma joined the Melbourne Storm from the Wests Tigers in late July, the mid-season moves strengthening top clubs frustrating Bennett.
โThis player movement is about once the competition starts,โ Bennet said.
โWhat you do in the off-season you can still do as far as I'm concerned.
โBut when the season starts it shouldn't just happen all the time.โ
The NRL and the RLPA are currently negotiating a new CBA, which will see the topic of trade windows discussed directly between the two parties, before the current deal expires within the fortnight.
