The NRL has failed to close a damaging rift with clubland after four club chairmen walked out on talks at Rugby League Central on Wednesday.

The meeting looked ill-fated when North Queensland’s Laurence Lancini, Cronulla’s Damian Keogh, Canterbury’s Ray Dibb and Melbourne’s Bart Campbell left a meeting of the game’s heavy hitters after just 30 minutes.

It is thought the move came after the governing body took off the table a proposal to fund clubs 130 per cent of the salary cap from 2018 onwards.

The NRL, represented by ARL commission chairman John Grant and chief executive Todd Greenberg, reasoned it should concentrate on the collective bargaining agreement and setting the salary cap before tackling club funding.

Its position was there was little point negotiating club funding as a proportion of the salary cap while it’s unknown how much the salary cap will be.

Last December the NRL and its clubs agreed in principle to that increased funding in exchange for signing perpetual licences, which would eliminate the possibility of a Super League-style breakaway competition.

However clubs have since baulked at proposed terms including that they contribute to a sinking fund which would bail out clubs that go into receivership.

The NRL’s inability to come to an agreement over the last 11 months has become a source of concern and frustration with some clubs.