Female players need to be prioritised in fight between RLPA and NRL

The tiles are great and all, but what next?

The public already knows the NRL and NRLW playing group is united. They’ve been telling us for months. We know they’re the most united they’ve ever been. We’ve heard them.

Unfortunately, the general public, including their Instagram followers, probably don’t care that much. That’s no one’s fault, it’s just that the average Joe seems to think collective bargaining agreement simply means “cash grab”.

Whether that’s the case or not is for someone with a crystal ball to figure out, because in talking to both sides you get vastly opposing versions of events.

Somewhere in the middle is the truth, but no one has been able to find it yet.

This is as close as can be ascertained. In conversations with people who have no skin in the game, the talk has been that while the NRL and NRLW playing groups say they’re united, they shouldn’t be. Not in a dual and concurrent fight for employment rights anyway, because one group has significantly more to lose as it inches closer to season kick off than the other. One needs urgent action and top priority – almost to the point where it’s a health issue.

There is a level of stress and anxiety within the women’s game at the moment that should be of serious concern.

The game’s female players are currently without insurance, but are training with their state sides to either stay fit, or with the intention of playing six games so they can qualify for State of Origin later this year. They don’t yet know when the NRLW season starts, what the draw is, or where they’ll be playing this year. Could be NSW, could be Queensland. Remember, they’re part time athletes, many with jobs on the side. How do you communicate that insecurity to your regular employer or your young family?

It’s a nerve-wracking scenario where some players want to play in the state competitions and think a serious injury won’t happen to them, or where they’re aware it might, but they want to train anyway. Two injuries to female players in the last week is proof enough it can, and will, happen to someone.

The great irony is, the formation of rugby league when it broke away from rugby union happened because of an insurance issue.

Players wanted compensation for time away from work and insurance from injuries. Rugby resisted, hence, the NSWRFL was formed.

Here they are doing the same thing again more than a century later.

If the current playing group truly is united, the RLPA and the NRL should be making the women’s CBA first priority to ensure there is some employment and health security for these players.

This is what no one is saying publicly, or potentially even seeing. The fault for this lies with both the NRL and the RLPA. It seems painfully obvious the women’s game needs to take priority over the men’s game in these negotiations. The NRL and RLPA have agreed to extend the current terms of the men’s CBA into this season, so they are protected.

NRL players are getting paid, and if they hurt themselves in the meantime, most of them will still get their full salary and the benefits of rehabilitation that is paid for.

If that happens to a woman their career could be over, and their employment prospects – whether on the field or in part time jobs they have to maintain to earn a living wage – could be gravely affected.

This is something everyone should care about. Injury hardship funds, the dissection of figures and who controls a pool of money are big-picture fights that can wait while the game’s female players are stuck in an extremely stressful limbo. They need immediate action or they face losing their dream and their livelihood everyday while they’re uninsured and uncontracted. Basically, immediate unemployment.

That is something the average person can understand. Pop that on an Instagram tile.