Kezie Apps, Adam Elliot outspoken about NRLW central bargaining agreements

Dragons skipper Kezie Apps insists the battle with the NRL over a first women's CBA has "nothing to do with money" as the dispute threatens to halt the beginning of the NRL season.

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The game's male and female players remain at loggerheads with the NRL as their representative body, the RLPA, looks to negotiate a new CBA after more than a year of back and forth over pay and conditions.

While male players have the safety net of the previous agreement that carries over until a fresh one is negotiated, the women remain without a watershed first CBA.

It leaves the game's female players without NRLW contracts or a proposed schedule despite the addition of four new teams this season.

It will see players head into next weekend's All-Stars clash and looming NSW Women's Premiership without insurances and faced with the choice of sitting out or risking NRLW contracts.

Apps said the uncertainty was frustrating for the players after several years of growth in the game.

"I feel really sorry for the clubs, especially the new clubs coming into it, not having a clear direction of where they could go," Apps told ACM last month.

"A lot of clubs are talking to a lot of players but there's nothing in concrete because they have no idea what it looks like.

"I feel for the coaches and obviously the players as well. We can't plan our lives and plan the next however many months because we don't know what it looks like yet.

"Girls like myself have to relocate, girls have work and family [concerns]. They need to be able to weigh those things up against what they might be offered.

"There's so many things happening behind the scenes and it's just really frustrating that we can't have a clear view of what we're doing. It's really tough."

Players were left enraged when the NRL subverted the negotiation process by announcing a new salary cap before a new CBA had been struck.

Head office confirmed, two days before Christmas, that the NRL cap will increase from $9.6million to $12.1million and the NRLW cap will rise to $884,000.

It's an increase of 25 per cent for the men and 150 per cent for the women, though it's been viewed as a calculated move from head office to characterise the saga as purely a pay dispute.

Apps insists that couldn't be further from the truth.

"It is nothing to do with money at all," she said.

"It's about the basic work conditions that come with having a collective bargaining agreement. We currently have nothing in place.

"In regards to how and when we're playing, things around pregnancy policy, minimum wages, anything that goes into workplace policies, we have nothing.

"It's got nothing to do with the money, it's about having the security that, if we do sign a contract, we know what we're signing up for and what's protected.

"We have come a long way as a game but it's still got a long way to go."

This sentiment was shared by newly signed Newcastle Knights lock Adam Elliot in recent days during an interview with local radio in Newcastle.

Elliot told Hit106.9 Newcastle that a meeting between the RLPA and NRL was to be held over the weekend, and would give a good indication of the action required by players.

"If we don't get the results in the next sort of 24-48 hours in the boardroom between our president, Clint Newton, Andrew Abdo and Peter V'Landys then we're going to be speaking about different action that we're going to take," he said.

"We're a really united playing group at the moment, it's probably the most united and together I have ever seen a group.

"The women's CBA, it's a joke at the moment.

"If it gets to the point where we've to do something extreme, I'm really confident that all the players are going to buy into it and be working together for that common goal."

The NRL clarified its position on the NRLW pregnancy and parental policy, and private health insurance last Tuesday, however is still yet to announce the NRLW CBA.

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