Proposed changes to the NRL's transfer system lack respect for players and fall "well short" of the Rugby League Players' Association's expectations, according to CEO Clint Newton.
The NRL has long faced criticism for its current trade system, which allows players to sign future deals with rival clubs when they still have a season to run on their contracts.
Viliame Kikau, Reed Mahoney, Jesse Bromwich and Isaiah Papali'i were among the high-profile players to have done so ahead of the 2023 season.
News Corp reported on Thursday that the NRL had drafted a proposal for a transfer window, which would only permit players to sign with rival clubs in the off-season immediately after the last season of their contract.
Players would have from the Monday after the grand final until the Monday before round one to organise their futures and could make use of a separate window for mid-season moves around the State of Origin period.
While Newton said the RLPA was willing to revise the current system, he criticised the NRL's proposal, which would give players five months rather than almost a year-and-a-half to finalise contracts.
"Don't let the fancy Americanised words fool you, it's not about trades and transfers, this is about restraints and restrictions that the game are looking to put on players," he said on SEN.
"We certainly oppose what's put forward. Is there an opportunity to make some positive changes? Sure, and we've been open to that.
"Anything that we've seen so far certainly falls well short of the expectations and certainly doesn't fairly respect the risk the players undertake when they play such a high-speed, high-collision, high-risk sport."
Newton said the NRL's proposal did not include compensation for players in exchange for the amendments.
"(Transfer windows) in other sports come with improved terms and conditions in other areas for players. This proposal doesn't have that counterbalance," he said.
Newton questioned how new or struggling clubs could become competitive if given only a short window to build or reshape their playing list.
"If these restrictions were in place over the last 12 months, how does the NRL propose (incoming side) the Dolphins secure a roster for 2023? It makes no sense," he said.
"How does a club that is looking to rebuild after an unsuccessful season, do that at their discretion throughout a football calendar year, when we just end up having a meat market at the end of the year?"
Newton said in a short transfer window, star players would become the priority, with others suffering as a result.
"The majority of players are at the bottom end of the list: the battlers, the ones that we're meant to look after," he said.
"They'll just get pushed to the side until later in the piece. For me, that's fundamentally wrong."
