The "controversial" player contract "cooling-off" clause "looks destined for the scrapheap" after National Rugby League CEO Dave Smith on Tuesday admitted it was "not in the best interests of fans," according to Stuart Honeysett of THE AUSTRALIAN. Smith was in Canberra to announce a four-year partnership with the Australian War Memorial. It did not "take long for the conversation to be hijacked over the round-13 rule." Under the NRL's rules, "players can negotiate their futures at any time but the NRL will register a new deal only after round 13 in the final year of their contract." Smith: "My own view is that it's not necessarily in the best interests of the fans. I don't think there's a perfect system that exists anywhere but I think you can take it from a fan's perspective that they don't want to see that sort of thing." NRL Head of Football Todd Greenberg has been charged with "coming up with a better alternative to the current system and any proposed changes could be in place from next season" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 4/22). In Sydney, Phil Gould wrote in an opinion piece giving players the right to renege on contracts "long after any reasonable cooling-off period has expired really does embarrass our game." For a start, "I believe that if this round 13 registration clause in the NRL was ever seriously challenged in court we may find that the rule itself would have no priority over normal contract law." No club should have to operate in "an environment in which contracts can be broken so easily given the effect such actions can have on so many, and the game must never tolerate such reckless disregard for the meaning of a contract again" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 4/21).
