Gareth Ellis - Great that players have a voice which is finally being heard

CERTAINLY as long as I have been in rugby league, the opinions of players have tended to be dismissed or unheard and we haven’t had a strong enough platform to get our views across.

That is now changing and I think players and administrators realise we deserve and need a voice. Through the GMB union senior players from every club got together last week and launched a social media campaign with the message ‘united we stand to work together for a greater game’, along with the hashtag #onevoice.

I’d like to think that was taken into consideration when the clubs voted not to cut the salary cap for next year.

It has been a long time coming, but the situation we are in now has certainly galvanised the playing group, not just in teams, but across the whole competition.

With everything that’s going on around health and safety – such as insurance, testing, the amount of games we are going to be playing and over what period of time – there’s plenty of issues that need addressing and it is only right the players are coming together with a unified voice.

We are not necessarily making demands, but I think an opinion from a playing point of view, when at the end of the day we are the ones who are going to be out there at the sharp end once rugby restarts, is worth listening to.

I think maybe this scenario has woken the players up a bit and hopefully their voice is something that will be considered when future decisions are made, particularly around their health and safety.

I have been in the GMB for a while and I think in the past we’ve struggled to get players to buy in.

In rugby league we come very much from a culture of ‘just get on with it’.

The attitude is usually to crack on and not get too caught up in the politics of things.

I think it goes back to when you are a kid playing junior rugby. I remember my coaches or my dad running on to the field when I’d been injured and they’d give you a pat down with the magic sponge and say ‘come on lad, get up and get on with it’.

I think that’s an attitude that’s instilled in us, but it doesn’t mean we don’t have a worthwhile opinion.

In recent weeks I have come across some really intelligent blokes with good, well considered views about the game.

Previously a lot of the decisions have been made by businessmen, who have the game at heart and want to make it better, but don’t necessarily have a rounded opinion.

When it comes to the salary cap, the statement from the GMB pointed out it is up to the clubs whether they want to spend the full amount or not.

It is a limit, not a minimum.

Some clubs don’t spend the full cap and others maximise it to its full potential.

In terms of the game I think it was right to keep it at least as it is.

We’ve not raised the salary cap very often, as it has been in Australia.

Moving forward, clubs will be doing the best they can to secure the immediate and long-term future of the game, but I certainly feel lowering the cap wasn’t the right step forward.

It would probably cheapen the game a bit and, with a TV deal coming up soon, was the wrong message to be sending out.

In the shorter term, it would have had a big effect on any players who are coming off contract and looking to re-sign.

If clubs are running on smaller budgets, which they might be anyway, it would have put a lot of players in a very vulnerable position.

From that point of view, the right decision has been made.

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