Canberra Raiders star Blake Austin says the players will stick solid on their privacy, despite the NRL wanting to gain access to their bank account and phone records as part of the new collective bargaining agreement.
The Rugby League Players Association held a meeting with about 300 players to discuss the NRL's latest CBA offer on Monday night.
While Austin said the gap between the two parties was "closing rapidly" he said they still had some important differences to overcome before an agreement.
Both parties were close to agreeing on a 29.5 per cent revenue share - including a $9.4 million salary cap for next season - but Austin said the NRL's wish to gain access to players' personal information was a non-negotiable.
The NRL wants their integrity unit to have access to bank and phone records as a protective measure should any salary cap or match-fixing investigations arise.
They claimed the AFL and Cricket Australia, who both recently completed their CBAs, already had access to the same information.
It's believed the AFL has access to their players' private information, but strictly for inquiries into problems such as cap breaches or supplementary drug scandals.
"As a group we'd have a pretty strong stance on that. That's not something that n`eeds to be part of the deal and we'll be sticking solid on that," Austin said on Tuesday.
"There's still a few things that need to be sorted, but definitely the gap's closing rapidly, but there's still a few other things financially and non-financially we want to achieve."
Austin said the protracted negotiations weren't a distraction for the players, who place their full faith in the RLPA to handle the negotiations on their behalf.
"No not at all. We're footy players. There's guys that sit at the table for a reason and we just play footy," he said.
Sydney Roosters captain Boyd Cordner was one of the players who attended the union meeting in Sydney.
While he could understand the NRL's desire to clamp down on integrity issues, he felt it was an extreme measure to be brought into a sport.
Cordner felt the measures were needed for a "minority" of players and the NRL's request was a "knee-jerk reaction".
"I think at the end of the day, it's sport. It's a game of rugby league," he said.
"When they're bringing in personal stuff like that, personally I don't agree with it. But if that's the way it goes and everybody's happy like that, we're going to have to abide by it.
"But then again, it's a minority out of the playing group. It's not all of us.
"I know it reflects on us as a group, but then again I think it might be a knee-jerk reaction to something that happened a while ago from the minority."
Roosters teammate Aidan Guerra echoed Cordner's sentiments and said the NRL only needed access to personal details in drastic cases.
"I don't think they can just fill out a form and look in everyone's phone records or anything like that. It's got to be pretty extreme circumstances," Guerra said.
"But even still, I mean everyone's entitled to their privacy. We'll see how that pans out." with AAP
NRL ROUND 25
Friday: Canberra Raiders v Newcastle Knights at Canberra Stadium, 6pm. Tickets available from Ticketek.
Raiders: 1. Jack Wighton, 2. Nick Cotric, 3. Jarrod Croker (c), 4. Joey Leilua, 5. Jordan Rapana, 6. Blake Austin, 7. Aidan Sezer, 8. Junior Paulo, 9. Josh Hodgson, 10. Shannon Boyd, 11. Josh Papalii, 12. Joe Tapine, 13. Elliott Whitehead. Interchange: 14. Kurt Baptiste, 15. Clay Priest, 16. Dave Taylor, 17. Luke Bateman. Reserves: 18. Jeff Lima, 19. Erin Clark, 20. Royce Hunt, 21. Michael Oldfield.
Knights: 1. Nathan Ross, 2. Ken Sio, 3. Dane Gagai, 4. Peter Mata'utia, 5. Shaun Kenny-Dowall, 6. Jack Cogger, 7. Trent Hodkinson, 8. Daniel Saifiti, 9. Daniel Levi, 10. Josh King, 11. Lachlan Fitzgibbon, 12. Jamie Buhrer, 13. Mitch Barnett. Interchange: 14. Joe Wardle, 15. Mickey Paea, 16. Sam Stone, 17. Jacob Saifiti. Reserves: 18. Brendan Elliot, 19. Pat Mata'utia, 20. Jaelen Feeney, 21. Jack Stockwell.
