THERE are some things we just have to get used to. Petrol prices are high, Britney's self-esteem is low, and loyalty in league is going the same way as scrums, Kangaroos tours and the good old-fashioned stink; it just ain't what it used to be.

So accept it, turn left (or right) off that two-way street everyone calls loyalty, and find the transit lane, which is the transfer lane, a seemingly seamless route that allows players to switch clubs and clubs to cut players with less trepidation and more transparency.

The current (largely) free-for-all system, whereby clubs can approach players and their managers any time, any place, was introduced with two goals in mind: to stop the cloak-and-dagger deals being done illegally; and to prevent the swirl of speculation and innuendo that surrounded the end of the previous anti-tampering period.

Now, the deals are kosher, but the swirl is a season-long blur. The transfer window is an option often discussed but rarely given serious thought, but maybe it is time to do that. It seems to work in European football. Rugby league has grown up sufficiently so that money talks louder than loyalty - not quite to the stage where the players are driving Bentleys and earning a yearly salary in a week - but enough, surely, to show that the time has come for acceptance over reluctance.

There are varying ways it could work. Cronulla chief executive Tony Zappia is a supporter of a three- or four-week window during July and August. He believes the ongoing speculation surrounding deals has a destabilising effect on supporters, players and even the corporate partners, and affects the bottom line of clubs. "Something like that needs to be looked at," he said.

There are other models worth considering. Penrith coach Matthew Elliott believes one window should be opened a week before June 30 - allowing players to switch there and then, allowing clubs to respond to shortfalls in their roster - followed by another after the grand final. And he doesn't buy into the age-old retort that players would not have time to switch interstate or overseas after a season.

"Inevitably, they'd only have that time to move anyway," Elliott said.

Following Sonny Bill Williams's defection to French rugby union, a push has also re-emerged for transfer fees to be included so players can break contracts - at a price. Clubs are left to negotiate the transfer fee depending on the quality of the player and the length of his contract remaining.

"It protects everybody," Manly chief executive Grant Mayer said. "It gives players the opportunity to travel overseas and to see if the grass is actually greener on the other side of the fence. And it puts a bit more control back in the club's hands and would protect against the Sonny Bill issue.

"We're not in Europe. We're not being raided by European clubs every second day, but we need to evolve the way the game's going. Players like [Mark] Gasnier and Sonny Bill are going overseas. Rather than players walking out, why can't we have an international system whereby players can be traded at a cost."

Glenn Jackson