"It's 26 per cent," said Johns. "Considering what you give to the the game - you give your body - and the consequences, 26 per cent is minute." Fittler added: "One of the problems is the players can't find out how much the league earns. It's hard to take 26 per cent, 25 per cent, whatever is, of a mystery number." The failure of the parties to reach an agreement means the salary cap has not yet been set for 2018.

I, non-robot

It was possibly the tweet of the year from a rugby league player, and it came late on Saturday night. Huddersfield's Tom Symonds, formerly of Manly and Sydney Roosters, said: "Great to see John Asiata killing it at halfback! You'd be surprised how many players have these skills & end up getting coached into robots."

Asiata was described by others on social media as "fat Thurston" after an accomplished performance for North Queensland in the narrow defeat to St George Illawarra at WIN Stadium, in which he came up with two try assists. The 23-year-old (one appearance) made it a big day for Samoan internationals with centres Tim Lafai and Joey Leilua each scoring try doubles.

Tampering without balls

Any opinions on the current chaos of the player market were, until now, a matter of taste. Some enjoyed the horse-trading that starts even before the season does - it "keeps other sports off the back page" - and continued all year. Others thought it completely barmy. But when clubs drop any pretence of propriety and openly approach players contracted to other sides for years into the future, we are entering very murky waters indeed regarding corporation law. On Friday, Nathan Brown said: "Just because a player's under contract today, it doesn't mean a great deal. They might want to sign someone else or we might want them." On Sunday, there were unsourced reports Canterbury's James Graham had been approached by a club. Inducement to breach contract is a crime and in the NRL you can't approach players more than 12 months in advance. We might need a trade window for legal, rather than aesthetic, reasons before long.

Name your bid: The club future of James Graham appears to be up for grabs. Photo: Mark Nolan

Retirement for Cronk?

Billy Slater does not think Melbourne teammate Cooper Cronk will retire at the end of the season. Fullback Slater, who faces his own decision in that area, reckons Cronk will join a Sydney club. "I personally think he will," Slater said on Channel Nine. "I just think he's still got so much to offer. He'll be a great addition to any side. He provides so much structure, he's a really good defensive half. It will be sad if the game loses him at the peak of his powers. He's 34 this year and he's still playing as good as ever." But Slater added that if Cronk did quit, it would not be a massive surprise to him, either.

On the hunt for crowds

The NRL looks down its nose at Super League playing two entire rounds over Easter, and from a health and safety point of view, it does indeed look ridiculous. But have a look at the holiday crowds here over the weekend! Two Easter rounds in the NRL, from the point of view of a turnstile, would have been very busy indeed. Still on that issue, six of the top seven home average drawing teams heading into the Good Friday games were from one-town teams. Still think the Sydney market can sustain eight-and-a-half sides? If we continue to take individual games to places where there is a demand for them, and steadily amp up the practice, relocation may occur by osmosis ... so slowly we barely notice.

"I demand to be interviewed at a sensible time"

One of the consistent themes when Ian Prendergast did the rounds of the media on Sunday was the idea that players will "buy in" to the prosperity of the game if they get a share of its revenue. The RLPA chief executive compared it to owning a house as opposed to renting and, on Triple M, panelist Gorden Tallis presciently pointed out that coaches will still probably tell players to shut up in the media regardless. Each NRL club has to put the entire squad up for media interviews at a single session once a month. Understandably, they do this when it suits them. South Sydney announced at 7pm on Good Friday their entire squad would be available at 10.30am the next morning. Again understandably, only a handful of reporters showed up. Is Prendergast suggesting players would in future complain about such a situation and demand to speak to the media at a time when they can obtain wider coverage for our glorious sport? As his former sport once exclaimed, "I'd like to see that."