If a group of recalcitrant Sydney clubs was to refuse to sign NRL franchise agreements next year, they'd be doing the League Central administration a favour.

There has been speculation this week that some clubs are deeply unhappy with NRL chief executive David Smith and chairman John Grant - to the extent that they want them overthrown.

Good things, bad things: NRL CEO Dave Smith. Credit:Edwina Pickles

The biggest stick clubs have is Super League: refusing to sign the documents that make them members of the NRL, instead choosing to go off and start a competition of their own.

Some of the reported complaints are eminently reasonable: a lack of transparency when it comes to club loans, a surfeit of highly paid consultants as part of an internecine corporate culture and the inconsistency of punishments for off-field misdemeanours.