Keep telling yourself that...........

I'm not sure what the pre-conditions of team selection are, but, off the top of my head and without qualitative statement:

1. Wellens
2. Carney
3. Senior
4. Ellis
5. Gardner
6. Martyn / Harris
7. Long
8. Graham
9. Cunningham
10. Peacock
11. Farrell
12. Burgess
13. Sculthorpe

Looking at the above I find it hard to believe anyone could suggest the salary cap has somehow leeched all talent away from our competition. The pack especially is very strong.

Mugwump - you say Robinson was poor towards the end of his career? He left Wigan in 2000 just one year after scoring a hat trick of tries against St Helens at CP in which he left the whole side for dead. Had they not 'found him out' that day?

Hanley turned his back to pass to his left? So did Wally Lewis (or to his right, but whatever you get the point) is he crap as well?

how anybody can put wellans before rads is beyond me

Not at all. Saints were appalling that day. But this doesn't alter the fact that Robinson was far less effective later in his career. I can't believe people are even debating this question. Once SL clubs were granted the same advantage the Wigan team and a handful of Leeds players enjoyed they could devote more time to countering the threat posed by Robinson. Half-backs had the opportunity to practice peppering him with high crossfield kicks toward which he was hopelessly disadvantaged because of his size. And once fitness was brought up to fully pro level there was far less broken field for Robinson to run into. Against a solid defensive line he was going nowhere - unless he speculated on a chip over. But most good coaches were prepared to accept such because of the major role of luck.



The fact that Gregory (not Hanley) turned his back is only one of his faults. He had a highly suspect temper (any fully pro outfit today would have him red carded within the first quarter), his fitness level wasn't great which meant he found it very difficult to support the ball carrier and his kicking to his left was hit and miss.

Yes, Lewis turned his back and that was a weakness to his game. But he made up for it and more besides. Gregory wasn't in his league.

Maybe Robinson wasn't as good due to his age and loss of speed?

Still scored one of the best tries in a GF.

Robinson's edge was his acceleration, not his speed (although he could shift a bit) - being able to explode past defenders and beat the cover within the first thirty yards - and from what I could see he possessed it for most of his career. Even in his final season at Sale he was leaving some fairly quick players for dead.



It was a good try.

Wellens before Radlinski


Robinson "worked out"


Judging Connolly by his international try-scoring record



You need to get out more Muggy

And I'm supposed to listen seriously to a person who adds nothing to the debate other than disbelief that someone could have the temerity to choose Wellens over Radlinksi? Besides, the team was picked to highlight the lack of any qualatitive degeneration since the 90s.

And HEAVEN FORBID we should ever judge a centre by the number of TRIES he scores? I know one thing - if Brian Noble signed a centre with a proportionally similar record for Wigan you'd be out on the streets with placards calling for him to be hung, drawn and quartered.

And your opinion is just that, not a statement of Fact!

Name me 1 better Winger than Him in the last 10 years!

How many did his winger score?

Here we go again having to decipher spaghetti madness...

What is your Problem??????
I don't give a flying toss what you think about the Neatness of my reply even though it is completely ledgeable!

I see you havent responded to any of the sensible repsonses you have been given?????

I suggest if you don't like the "Debate" then go somehwere else and listen to all of those who keep telling us that despite good hidings every year from the other Nations (And please don't quote me the series win against a 2nd string Kiwi squad!) this is the "Best Ever" SL and the competition is "More Competitive!".

I can get 26 drunks out of the Labour club and have a competitive Game!

It doesnt make them any Good!

Oh and BTW, Are you really as big of a Kn0b that you come across as???

This is the most competitive SL ever. We will beat tha Aussies at the end of the season. Simple.

Another example of what a fantastic league this is! Boring is an understatement.

Your right!

Eddie & Stevo told us so!

Did you see the HYPE before the France Match!!!!!!! it was amazing!!!!!

Phil Clarke was almost cringing with embarrassment after the game when Eddie & O'Connor were Bigging up that performance!!!!!





























God forbid we had to go Down Under and play & 12/15 game tour like we used to!

Just imagine how "Tired" and fatigued the players of SDL! would be then!

I mean they already play about 32/34 matches in a season now whilst getting substituted 4 times a game!!!!!!!!

I don't know how it's possible when they are so fit & strong & more proffesional than they used to be!

So you prefer the old days?

Not at all. I’m perfectly comfortable with my reasoning. It is you who appears to be leaking steam out of your joints.

No - it’s dead easy. Hit the quote button and bracket what you want to quote with [QU0TE[/UNQU0TE) – Replace the zeroes with O.


Not me, Guv. I have very little time for SKY’s coverage. Eddie is tolerable as a front man, but Stevo demonstrates all the tactical awareness of a liver. It’s harmful to the game because it spawns people who populate threads such as these spouting nonsense about how things were better in the Owwul’d day. If posters possess not so much as a smidgeon of tactical understanding how can they claim such?


The reason we have fallen behind is as I’ve posted earlier. Since the inception of SL the Australians have worked far harder than us at grass roots level. Consequently they produce a proportionally higher number of good players than they did ten years ago. The salary cap is not the problem. It’s the amount of raw materials the Aussies get to draw upon. But there are plenty of hugely talented kids coming through at the moment. Or are Mossop, Tomkins, Eastmond, Wheeler, Lomax, Lawrence et al as inferior as some in this thread appear to claim?


Gregory was part of a team that defeated Australia in Australia. So was Gareth Ellis. I’m struggling to see the apparent difference.


I interviewed Tallis and a number of other Kangaroos on the RLFANS press ticket. But I don’t get it – I’m supposed to think Betts is a world beater because an Australian Test international says he’s the mutt’s nuts, but when I offer the same evidence it’s tossed into the round filing cabinet like a page three calendar on chief exec inspection day. Weird.


Oh, come on! Senior might be agricultural, but he’s played some blinders for GB. Were you not at the JJB the night he tore down the left flank a number of times?


You must be joking.


What on earth are you smoking? Farrell was never a world class player in the early to mid 90s. He had ONE decent series against Australia. His last.

If you’re seriously claiming Graham and Burgess aren’t world class players there’s no point debating with you. I just wish you’d told me you are nuts at the start of this post so I could have saved the effort.

Wouldn't you like to know, sweet cheeks.

Super League is getting better and better, standards are going through the roof.

The competition is now truly equal, the salary cap has ensured that any team can beat any other.

Have you got your tickets for the Saints / Leeds Grand Final yet?

That is exactly the point, and one which the pro CC lot never answer.

And now Iv'e figured out that your just a Think's he knows it all I won't waste my time either!

I think Graham & Burgess are Very Good/ Excellent SL Players, I think bith have much to prove against the Very Best at international level before we call them "World Class"!

While i feel that i don't agree with all you say. Pro cap supporters don't really make any good cases in its support... the bigger clubs are running to the max...and the smaller clubs making do with what they can pick up from the bigger clubs. would be the same with or without the cap...

Nothing more needs to be added, to even suggest that Wellens is superior to Radlinski you are clearly talking b*llocks. Temerity, indeed






Would you only judge a prop on the number of carries he makes at international level? Or a fullback on the number of successful catches? Or a SR on the number of tackles? No, you wouldn't. Maybe you should look at Connolly's club try-scoring record...