NRL refuses Luke contract registration

The NRL has refused to register Issac Luke’s new four-year contract with South Sydney – because he negotiated it himself, according to Rugby League Week magazine.

The Australian weekly reveals how the Agent Accreditation Scheme has asked the NRL not to recognise the deal because it was brokered without Luke’s manager Gavin Orr, with whom he is in dispute.

“We are certainly not happy that Souths have elected to negotiate directly with Issac Luke considering they were advised such action would, in our view, amount to assisting the player to contravene his agent agreement,” accreditation scheme chairman Geoff Bellew tells RLW.

“The committee sees their actions as a slap in the face to the accreditation scheme and what we are trying to achieve.”

Souths chief executive Shane Richardson, however, says negotiating directly with Luke was cleared with NRL CEO David Gallop and he would have signed with another club had the Rabbitohs not acted.

Rugby League Week is available across Australasia and globally on iTunes.