After years walking unscathed from the smouldering wreckage of various salary cap scandals, botched contract negotiations and countless other slow cuts at the integrity of the game, player managers have finally copped a slap.

In the grand scheme of things, a slap is all it is, but it's something. The NRL confirmed this week that it had cancelled the accreditation of Gavin Orr while Isaac Moses has been issued a "show cause" notice, the first step in potentially losing his. He vehemently denies any wrongdoing.

Antoun Zibara and Mario Tartak were other agents hit with notices by the NRL with chief operating officer Nick Weeks saying 2019 was the first season in which the game has had the power to do so.

"The reform of the rules relating to player agents at the end of last year has allowed the NRL to hold player agents accountable in the same way as Players and Club Officials," Weeks said.

It should be noted that player agents threatened legal action and did everything in their power to resist reforms to the NRL's agent accreditation scheme that would make them accountable in the same away as the players they represent and the clubs for which they ply their trade.

As we've seen through various salary cap scandals, it is players and club officials who bear the true cost. Likewise, it's players left to count the cost of reputational damage when contract negotiations turn into a circus.

That fact's never been plainer than in Latrell Mitchell's current contract saga, one with a Medusa-like ability to grow fresh heads whenever it seems finished.

People have pointed the finger at the media for its role in driving the daily soap opera. It's not unwarranted but it's demonstrable fact that Mitchell's been advised terribly by what is reportedly a coterie of voices around him.

One can only hope he is settled soon and can go about rebuilding an image that's taken a big hit through these negotiations. It does happen.

Daly Cherry Evans, managed by Orr and brother Chris, was once the most loathed figure in the game after he backflipped on the Titans to sign his monster deal with the Sea Eagles.

It was all within the rules at the time, but it stank to high heaven. He's now Queensland skipper, speaks with a statesmanlike air, all while counting his hefty millions.

Still, he's no favourite with the rank and file, and likely never will be. Ours is a game with more than it's fair share of squeaky wheels, but it's fact contract-negotiation sagas do more to erode the faith of the game's fans than anything else.

What we've seen this week is hardly a cure-all. There's a long way to go further dilute the toxicity the seven percenters bring to the game... but it's a start.