The NRL is teetering on the edge of a rebellion from its 16 clubs as anger over its failure to secure a funding agreement blazes like wildfire.

Relations between the game’s governing body and clubland is described as being at its lowest ebb since the Super League war after a disastrous meeting on Wednesday in which four club chairmen stormed out.

ARL Commission chairman John Grant is now facing a test of his leadership and could find his position under threat if the clubs and state bodies unite to overthrow him.

On Wednesday Canterbury’s Ray Dib, North Queensland’s Laurence Lancini, Cronulla’s Damian Keogh and Melbourne’s Bart Campbell prematurely left a meeting with Grant and NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg in a sign of the growing rift.

The meeting, between the club’s 16 chairmen and the NRL, was convened to finalise a deal on club funding.

Last December the two parties reached an in-principle agreement that from 2018, club funding would equate to 130 per cent of the salary cap.

However that deal was never finalised and the club’s frustration at Greenberg’s and Grant’s inability to get the deal done is growing.

There are a number of sticking points getting in the way – including the NRL’s insistence on creating a a sinking fund to prop up failed clubs. The clubs insist it is not their responsibility to provide funding to a failed rival club.

At Wednesday’s meeting the NRL pulled the club funding agreement from the table, prompting the four chairmen to walk out.

The NRL argued that until the collective bargaining agreement and salary cap is agreed upon, it is pointless negotiating the funding deal.

There will be another meeting between the chairmen and the clubs next week at which Grant is expected to be scrutinised.

The NRL’s inability to finalise the salary cap for 2018 is also a source of growing frustration with agents, players and clubs.

It’s an unwanted distraction for the NRL which will on Thursday launch its draw for the 2017 season.