On paper this is the most competitive SL ever, with 10 points seperating 3rd from bottom and just 4 from 7th to bottom. And with the exception of Saints and to a lesser degree Wire who are a step up in class so far, I beleive anybody can beat anybody.

Can't decide if that is simply due to the Salary Cap hitting full impact after all these years or if we simply have more players who aren't capable of playing well two weeks in a row. My own club Hull have been the extreme example of this, looking top some weeks and error strewn and out of sorts the next. Several others clubs are having this same up and down form though so it can't just be down to coaching methods at one club.

A good choice of Marquee players such as at Saints and Wire has seemed to provide an edge, but Leeds have spent big and got little return so not convinced marquee players has been the difference to how things where 5, 10 or 15 years ago.

Finishing top has been devalued and that could be a reason, as in theory you can still finish 5th and be Champions so there isn't as much of a need to perform every week. Maybe bigger financial rewards for where you finish in the regular season would help fix this.

Frustratingly for the game the TV games have seemed to feature one in form and one of our form team a lot of weeks, ive been quite bored watching some of the 'neutral' games as many seem to be blowout scores quite early. Hard to tell if there have been more of these games or i've just forgotten some of the bad ones from seasons past!

Think it’s 3 teams that are key to what is an unusual season.

London not being whipping boys like people expected and what we usually get from whoever is bottom in any given season. If they were on 6/8pts now like most would’ve expected then no real fight and teams above strolling towards the end of the season.

Leeds and Wigan falling backwards for various reasons. If they take recent form into next season then the top 5 will look more of the usual.

It’s not going to be every season you’re going to have a really competitive team in 12th place nor have your 2 main champions for over the last decade have issues.

The SL standard has been falling for some while, it just happens to be close in terms of points between a number of teams.

For me the interchange rule and cleaning up the PTB has created a shift towards the more athletic mobile side rather than the power teams. Castleford, Warrington and Saints usually play that style and have only needed a small adjustment to speed up attacking play, I should imagine Castleford would have been knocking on 3rd place if they didn't have that horrendous injury spell.

A couple of teams like Leeds and Wigan have recruited badly whilst Salford are being stripped of there best talent mid season. The rest are just too inconsistent and can't get a decent run of form.

When you think of the quality of Hudds Leeds Saints Wigan and Wire teams at the start of this decade. They’d all win comfortably against the current top 5.

Going off my team, Wire’s 2011 and 2012 side would put 50 on this current Wire side. Saints are cruising at the top this season yet they’d get a hammering of their 2006 side.

The standards are as high as they've ever been, however, changes to the rules and the introduction of the 'wrestle' has tipped the balance too much in the favour of defence overall.

I do think reducing the number of injuries is one of the biggest challenges that the game faces

I don’t know about standards being as high as ever.

From my example above, I’ll make a XIII from the 2011 Wire side and the current Wire side(*):
1 Bret Hodgson
2 *Tom Lineham (over Riley)
3 Matt King
4 Ryan Atkins (of 2011)
5 Joel Monaghan
6 Lee Briers
7 *Blake Austin (over Myler)
8 Adrian Morley
9 *Daryl Clark
10 Gareth Carvell
11 Ben Westwood (of 2011)
12 Louis Anderson
13 Simon Grix
Int. Ben Harrison; Paul Wood; *Chris Hill; Michael Monaghan

10-15 years ago most of the best British players played in Super League.

Today that would see:
Sam Burgess
Tom Burgess
George Burgess
Josh Hodgson
Jon Bateman
Elliot Witehead
Ryan Sutton
James Graham
Gareth Widdop
Ryan Hall
...all, or mostly all, playing in SL

At one point around 2005 we only had one British player in the NRL.

Whose left them mid season apart from Lui and that’s just 2 games and they wouldn’t have won at Wigan with him anyway.

Leeds’ form isn’t too bad under Agar with 4 wins from the last 6. Hell we’ve even been 7 wins from our last 13 in total. It was that horror start of 1 win from 8 that was significant and of those 8 we had Saints, Wire, Wigan, Hull and Catalans all away.

But if they were what real impact would it have on fans feelings of the current game. Can’t remember people tuning in to see Ryan Sutton play and even though Bateman got individual praise for his showings it wasn’t like people enjoyed watching Wigan when he was there so there’s a more overall affect than just players. People enjoy watching Cas on form over the years but it hasn’t been a team of superstars that could cut it in the NRL.

Didn't say whose left I said "are being stripped" when players are seeing there future elsewhere it can effect team morale up to now its Jones, Hastings, Bibby, Olpherts and Lui, they were a pretty decent side until all this came out into the open.

Realy, I must be watching a different game.

That's a downside of summer rugby. We don't see any top Aussies coming here anymore, once their season finishes, either.

£££££££££££££££ simple.

Nowt to do with summer rugby. You wouldn’t get Aussies coming here at the end of their season there’s no way an NRL club would allow nor would they want to. They need the off-season to recuperate.

It’s money, the lifestyle and the challenge of the NRL that is appealing to some of our best players.

also George Griffin and even our tiny coaching team is being dismantled Martin Gleeson to Wasps, so as ever we start the next season with a new team of castoffs, are given the wooden spoon tag on RL Fans predictions, punch above our weight once more get stripped of any assets by all those clubs with "great production lines" and the cycle continues. #hadenough

It’s why I was so annoyed with Koukash’s reign. Yes he kept you going for a few years but did nothing to fundamentally change the future for Salford. He had the money to put Salford’s infrastructure to the same level as Leeds, Wigan, Saints, Wire etc. If he’d done that you might not be back at having to sell players.

Your absolutely bang on don't get me going regarding that man, yes he kept us going but some of the stuff he's done to our club is not printable on here, but just say when you scrap the academy of which I believe Jake Bibby was one of the last to come through and is now off to Wigan as presumeably Wigan haven't been able to produce anyone as good ? we have players in our tiny squad not playing because of stuff in their contracts, reduced payments from the RFL I could go on forever, anyone heard anything else about his Cumbrian/Liverpool dream ? If he told me it was dark at midnight I would have to check for myself.

We are screwed without a local billionaire, we have one who sponsors Super League but he's not interested in his local club. (Not even a bit of spare change from the back of his sofa).

I've served my time many years a season ticket holder once JH is officially announced to the pies I'm done Good luck to Jackson he came to us under circumstances but for mine he's far to good wasting his talent by staying here in (and here's the link to the thread) a sub standard competition, but if true the pies are that desperate there going to pay him a quarter of a million for a season with an NRL get out clause which could mean him leaving at any point even before he's played then that says everything about the competition, that one of the supposed giants of RL are falling over themselves for potentially ONE season.

Also once we've been picked to the bones again and we eventually join Widnes/Leigh/Bradford the big boys will then look to strip the others of any talent and only when there's nothing left will the "self preservation society" themselves be done and semi-pro returns to Rugby League.

Sorry for the negative post but after watching us on Thursday after all the heads have been turned was enough for me, that was a team who nilled Catalan whist scoring nearly half a century away, hammered Wire at Wire and put thirty unanswered on Saints.

They’ve lost 2 on the trot, that’s pretty much been their form throughout the year....win 2 lose 2, and whilst they’ve come up with some great away showings such as Catalans and Wire, their home form has been iffy throughout the season,

Like I said they’ve lost 2 on the trot, away to Wigan who are in very good form (and beat them twice earlier in the year when they weren’t in as good form) so don’t really think that comes down to transfers. Then they’ve had a bad night at home vs Hudds, again their home form has been iffy all season. Hardly enough their to say their season has been derailed by players departing....which to be honest most clubs have a few guys lined up to be departing at the end of a season anyway so it’s nothing out of the usual.

Always find it funny that if Leeds or Wigan sign a player we’re stripping that club of it talents, but when the smaller club ends up with a player from Leeds or Wigan (which happens much more often) it’s a great bit of business.

Should we not sign players performing well just because you can’t afford to pay them better? Would you rather have players earn less in their careers for selfish reasons that you want him to stay at your club?

I believe that they'd still (top Aussies) come on a short term contract if we still played in winter.

I think you should be criticising your own club rather than the ones tempting players away with big pay deals, for once you looked a side that could of taken on the top teams

Exactly, it's a short career for rugby players, and if we still played in winter, agents would want to maximise their clients earnings with short term contracts in the SL and NRL. Take the point about recovery time - they didn't come every year back in the day, and the same would happen now.

Those days have gone.

They need longer and longer off-seasons, a top Aussie isn’t going to put at risk their start to the NRL season or god forbid their Origin hopes over a few games in the UK. That’s not withstanding their clubs actually allowing them to.

Everybody looks to their past teams with rose tinted specticals.

But as a competitive season this is pretty good.

The key is about how teams can grow their fan base.
Warrington are the only team in recent times that I can think of who have made significant headway in growing their fan base.