The NRL will introduce a referees' cadetship in a bid to turn the players of today into the referees of tomorrow.

In a week in which the relationship between players and referees hit the headlines following Andrew Johns' expletive riddled outburst at leading whistleblower Paul Simpkins at Energy Australia Stadium on Sunday, the NRL said it would establish a more direct route for players to make the transition into refereeing.

The cadetship will offer salary cap concessions to cover the cost of the training with the NRL hoping to not only develop future referees but also improve on-field relations between officials and players.

"(It would) give them a greater feel for what our referees face," NRL chief executive David Gallop said.

"Getting your players in as officials makes commons sense and if there's some incentive there through the salary cap then it should be taken up in fairly good numbers we believe."

But Gallop denied the program would be open for abuse by clubs looking for ways to cheat the salary cap.

"It would be a set scale, there's no suggestion that it could be a way around the salary cap," Gallop said.

"The big possibility there is that you're going to turn players into officials and you're also going to give a salary cap concession to incentivise (sic) that."

The bosses of all 16 NRL clubs - including new franchise the Gold Coast - gave the program the thumbs up at the chief executives meeting in Sydney.

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