Mate think about your original statement and what you were referring to.
The reason is now that Papalii has signed a contract and it has been registered with the NRL for 2023-2025, we can't offer him a contract unless the Tigers give us permission to. We can talk to him, but we can't actually offer him a contract without permission till the end of 2024.
Players and clubs can negotiate at anytime, they are free to offer/sign contracts at anytime. The only clause in the standard NRL contract that could deny it being binding (in addition to other general contract law) is under Registration where it says along the lines “this agreement is subject to NRL approval”.
The power of approval by NRL rests in the agreement between the NRL and the NRL team franchise/club. That agreement doesn’t actually expressly deny clubs contracting players from other clubs, but it sets out timeframes for when the NRL will consider approving new contracts, that being usually the earlier of 12 months prior to contract ending or being provided consent by current employer.
It also grants them the power to investigate clubs/players where they believe attempting to circumvent salary cap rules or tampering with the operations of other franchises has occurred. Then there is also similar agreements between NRL and player agents/players.
So as I said we can do whatever the f**k, but NRL has veto power, and then it possibly has other consequences.
But hey I guess unless you really thought about it then it all wouldn’t make sense, but now if you read my post you maybe able to understand the technical nuances.