Recently leeds were trying to sign Gareth Widdop from the melbourre storm but ultimatly the transfer didn't happen because it simply wasn't financially viable with the wages in the NRL and the exchange rate.

I was also interested to see wigans recruitment and how they are losing finch, lima, leuluai and carmont, and how they have signed a couple of young guys in the halfbacks but as of yet, no big replacements.

This is something we will see more and more of as the final generation of quality imports moves on and clubs are forced to either look for young replacements over here, or queensland cup reserves.

The effect of this is 2 fold.

The overall quality of the competition is going to decline further. I think most realistic fans, who aren't brainwashed by sky will agree that quality has gradually declined in recent seasons. Well it's certainly not going to improve in the short term because we simply can't afford to fill the gaps with quality from the NRL anymore, which means we are relying on a thin player pool over here.

The second effect is that the competition will continue level up.... somewhat. I say somewhat because you still get the usual suspects come trophy time.

This means that now, more than ever teams need to putting all their focus on developing the young players, because over the coming years the successful teams will be the teams that do the best job of doing that. Warrington have a massive couple of years when hodgson, morley, briers and monghan move on but I hear their under 20's won the grand final, so they are already on their way.

Maybe the finanical clout of the NRL will force everyones hand in turning to youth, god knows we need it. Because no matter what was said about franchising, the quota etc, there are still too many teams who rely too much on second rate imports.

Alot of rugby fans in general seem to be dissallusioned with the game at present, for various reasons and some are touched upon above (quality of games) but now is the time to hang tight. Taking your money out of the game will not help things although obviously that's a personal choice which is respected. But I believe things will be alot better in 10 years, this is just a trough that we have to, and is necessary to go through.

I am a realistic fanm and I am not brainwashed by Sky. I am certain that overall the quality of the SL comp has significantly improved in recent seasons.


Come off it. The change in currency values is not [ithat[/i great and could fluctuate in future. And there will always be fine players elsewhere who, for whatever reason, cannot get a regular spot at their club, or cannot get the contract they want, or whatever.


Well yes, but isn't that what the changes in the quotas have been directly aimed at, and isn't one consequence of the recession that clubs have little choice in this?


But aren't you contradicting yourself there? If the existing imports are "second rate", surely losing them is a huge [iadvantage[/i?

Regarding your 1st point, the quality hasn't increased. The week in week out games are of a poorer standard.

Regarding your 2nd point, the NRL dwarfs super league in financial clout. There used to be a saying that they came over here for ''a pay day''. But not anymore because the pay day [iis[/i the nrl.

Regarding your 4th point, In general terms the smaller clubs rely on second rate imports whilst the top teams have generally been able to get the better ones. But that's happening less and less due to the money in the NRL and our salary cap.

In what time scale are you putting on this decline in quality of SL?

Because in reality in say the last 5 years we have gone from two clear top two teams in Saints & Leeds to arguably a clear top 5 that are very close in competitiveness and quality and add Huddersfield and Hull F.C who are very good on there day and can challenge any team in the League.

We have also seen a decline in expensive imports and better quality young British players in Tomkins,Burgess,Hall,Shenton,Watkins,Charnley,Myler,Atkins,Hardaker,Briscoe etc.. who will should bring an exciting era on England RL in the next 5 years or so.

I just don't see this massive decline you say you see! If anything it has improved in my honest opinion.... especially the new exciting talents I have listed above who are tearing up the league at the moment

The only concern I have is if our better quality young players start to be seen as good value for the NRL to bring over to Aus - or - union starts to poach a bit more.

This has never really happened to any great extent before but there is now a widening of the salary cap gap and will probably see higher wages as well in Aus & union. It's a short career. 5 or so years in RL here to get established as a high level performer then seek a payday elsewhere.

I said decline in quality and increase in competitveness.

What you described above is a levelling out of teams because some of the best ones have declined in quality. Just compare saints line up now to the 2006 one.

Well that's just a decrease in the Saints first team, it usually happens after a very good era for a team and players leave get old or retire. But the increase of Wire,Cats,Wigan and Huddersfield makes up for that compare there line-ups of 2006 to todays!..but saints are still a quality side with a good young core that will improve and keep challenging for silverware.


You didn't answer my question on the time scale this decline in quality has taken place in 15years? 10 years? 5? what?

and what made this time so much better?

Are you saying because there are more young British players in top teams coming through and getting established the league is worse....and would only be better if we starting buying ageing Aussie stars for one last pay day like 10 years ago

RL fans are never happy

rewind 10 years we have too many mercenary Aussies/Kiwis in the league...we need to bring through more English talent

FFWD to today where the SL champions have only 2 foreign players in the starting squad and a whole heap of young talent playing in the league and a more competitive league this means not improvement but just everyone getting worse.

How are you measuring the quality. Athleticism and skill both seem to have increased to me.

I think we will lose a lot of our best players to the NRL & to me that can only be good as if they measure up to the NRL the national squad will become more competative, young British lads will have more oportunity in Super league they in turn will be in the shop window for the NRL thus increasing the quality of players for the international sides, most teams will have to use local lads in thier teams which will create more interest with the fans. The only down side is that we will not have the chance to see some of the best Kiwis & Aussies playing in our game.

Didn't Widdop state within the last 2 years that he'd only play for the Bulls in Super League?

Yeah, but money will always talk the loudest for pro sportsmen

The biggest problem is, Australia have always sent either
(a) Ageing players at the back end of their career to England on longer more lucrative contracts and several of them have cried off and gone home on "compassionate" grounds.
(b) players that can not hold a first grade spot on a permanent basis in the NRL.

Neither are really good options, you can count on less than one hand the "Stars" that have come to England, they have never been top shelf current Test players other than maybe King.

Australia are cherry picking the best that England have in Ellis, Graham, and Burgess, (Tomkins will be next) it will end up with all of the cream moving to the NRL many on game incentive contracts with the rejects thrown back and the successful kept on.

SL will become a second rate feeder competition to the NRL if what is happening now continues.

Then scrap the salary cap in this country.

The RFL should instead set fixed penalties if clubs go into Administration or go bust.

Then just step back and let the clubs get on with it.

NRL Clubs are struggling, even with decent crowds, national or international main sponsors and big support from Licensed leagues Clubs.
The Titans have been treading the tightrope for two years until they restructured.
West Tigers have had to ask for an advance on next years TV money to stay solvent.
Cronulla are touch and go every year, Canberra are not much better, the Storm would battle without special conditions (like London) and Newscorps ownership.

If the NRL struggle as one of the big two Winter Sports with all of the TV revenue and SOO being the most watched product on TV every year......

How do small SL Clubs with small population bases like Cas and Wakey fare? (half of the League in reality)
How many SL Clubs have large City populations to support them or have untapped fans to convert?

Its going to be a tough few years IMO.

I do wish people would get their facts right before going into print.
Wakefield is the fifth largest city in the country, 315,000.
Fair enough part of it includes Cas n Feath.
Subtract their populations you are still left with over 200,000.
Wakefield appears a small club because of 30 odd years of mismanagement.
Looking back to their golden years of the sixties crowds of 15000 to over 20000 were the norm.
Under the new Glover led regime they are increasing crowds significantly and do truly have the potential to return to the top tier.

My apologies for that Jacques, No offence but Wakefield must really punch below their weight.
I thought
London
Birmingham
Leeds
Sheffield
Bradford
Liverpool
Manchester
Leicester
Bristol
Coventry
And half a dozen other places were bigger than Wakey but I guess it all depends on where you draw the boundaries, you have included Castleford which goes against my point of separating the Clubs.

Maybe Wakeys population reflects poorly on their ability to draw a larger crowd and compete at a far higher level than they have in recent times.

I didnt draw up the boundaries and invent the figures.
Look it up on net.
Eg . Population of cities England.
For what its worth the actual urban area of Wakefield is comparable to that of the urban area of Wigan.
Wakefield 77000 Wigan 81000 both rounded to nearest thousand.

I'm assuming you meant Wakey is the 5th largest city in the county ....

The 300k total population is misleading - there's more like 60,000 bods actually in Wakefield itself ....

www.ukcities.co.uk/populations/ 11th by this source

www.ukcities.co.uk/populations/ 11th by this source

Oh goody, another population argument...

Yeah my mistake.
11th it is.
But the point being made stands re.potential regards population.

Think alot of people are surprised it is that high and with no professional football club in the area the potential as you say is there.

Wakefield 80k
Castleford 40k
Pontefract 40k
Normanton 15k
fev 15k
Knottingley & Ferrybridge 20k

All fall into Wakefield council but are not, never have been, never will be Wakefiled.
i live in Knottingley and apart from work never go to Wakefield for anything. rather go shopping and socializing in Leeds, York, And Even Doncaster before going to wakey.
wdc is a joke council and would much prefer Castleford Pontefract and Knottingley on its own or even throw are lot in with Selby council.

What Rugby League has lost throughout the Super League era is most definitely a sense of authenticity. The americanised vision the era attributed towards this in the most part: the changing of team names, the inclusion of foam fingers and "try or "no try" cards has left the sport's strong following by deviating away from the similarities which has kept football's crowds mainly unaffected by austerity. There's no connection with the sport's great history, or tradition and people feel alienated because of it and the crowds suffer.

This present gap between Australia's salary cap and ours is the perfect opportunity to take advantage of teams being forced into this position of having to play their own home-grown talent and to focus on improving the quality of the national side and international stage of Rugby League.

What we should do is reduce the Super League down to 10 teams, play each other twice, top four are included in a play-off where 1 v 4, 2 v 3 and the winners face each other in the final.

A completely new level of competitiveness will be introduced, teams will no longer go easy at any point in the season and every game will have meaning. Consistency will be rewarded to the extent of being in the playoffs come the end of the season. In a 10 team league with all of them above average in quality, this competitive edge with last throughout the full season and can only help develop these young players which we will see on the scene more at present.

Let's erase these animals off the end of our clubs names, bring back traditional colours and team names and encourage fans to enjoy the authenticity and tradition of this sport once again in the improved competitive 10 team league that mainly develops our own young players. It's the perfect opportunity to also bring back Great Britain. An international team which people actually recognise from the past when we were somewhat competitive with the Aussies, and a name which has increased relevance because of the recent London Olympics and its success.

If we could introduce this league and develop our own players, we could beat Australia and New Zealand, improve the international side of the game, introduce the sport into the Olympics and the whole thing will thrive.

I can wish.

Good post - but your suggested top division is just the top of the RL pyramid structure. What would you suggest for the leagues below this elite level? We need a strong pyramid structure to facilitate and motivate more people to play the game and thereby create a strong foundation for the elite level.