IT’S a rather strange dichotomy: players in Australia have never been better paid yet nor have they ever been more militant.

Since the last Bondi Beat, the National Rugby League has secured a satellite TV deal with Rupert Murdoch’s FOX Sports which has taken the total television rights contract to A$1.8 billion – with overseas to be added.

Securing this contract – which involved terrestrial broadcaster Nine selling back one Saturday night game to Fox – allowed the League to put out a draw for the new season.

Only problem is, after making all the right noises regarding player welfare (and giving the Australian team an autumn of) they didn’t actually ask the players first. It’s not the first time the game’s stars have been brushed.

Much work was done on a season of only 22 games, only for the former NRL chief executive David Smith to settle on 25 without telling anyone when a $925 million terrestrial deal was done.

Suddenly, industrial action was being discussed. The RLPA recruited the former boss of the AFL Players Association Ian Pendergast, as it’s new boss. The Aussie Rules players are a bigger political force in their game but, interestingly, they also agree to a draft – which is rugby league players traditionally oppose.

A rebellion from clubs was averted but one by players is still a possibility.

The big bugbear of the players is the five-day turnarounds between matches. Before the formulation of the 2015 draw, we were told they were to be eliminated. Now, they’re back – and while Monday Night Football is about to enter its final season, the advent of Thursday night games means completely eliminating them is going to be tricky.

Calls to change the draw have fallen of deaf ears and the NRL has even stopped well short of apologising for not consulting players before putting it out.

Michael Shenton’s column in last month’s Rugby League World brought the matter into sharp relief; players have short careers and have trouble focusing on the long-term lot of their brethren. It’s often every man for himself.

But with the clubs also knocking down the door of NRL chairman John Grant for cash, asking for 130 per cent of the total salary cap in funding, could we one day see the day where the middlemen are removed from the equation?

The NRL owns the team names and colours. Why can’t it simply employ the players directly, appoint 16 coaches and 16 identical offices and operate like McDonalds?

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IT’S common for Australians and New Zealanders in Super League to have clauses in their contracts which allow them a quick getaway if opportunities arise at home – all of which must make British fans feel a bit unappreciated.

But the Aussies seem to be getting a taste of their own medicine with Tom Burgess travelling to New York to trial with a couple of NFL franchises.

This has been characterised in the South Sydney came as Big Tom trying to ‘better himself’. Please. Tom Burgess is an elite athlete of international standard who is risking injury by training during the off-season in a completely different sport while under contract!

The fact that such a proud club as South Sydney can take such a subservient role in regard to the NFL proves that my dire warnings in this column over the years may have finally come true.

European soccer and American sports rule the world and we’re all sitting around fighting over their scraps.

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AS an old Illawarra Steelers fan, I was thrilled to read that Wollongong-loving media tycoon Bruce “Commissioner” Gordon was about to buy the Dragons.

Previously, Gordon – the man who owns WIN TV – owned half the mighty Steelers which meant he owned a quarter of the Dragons.

We Illawarra types have lamented the shrinking influence of the scarlet half of the joint venture in recent years, even though the training base is smack bang in the middle of the steel town.

The joint venture seems to have 50 jerseys, of which not one is the old Steelers design!