Research! Deary me today

I fully expect Warrington to be Super League Winners before we all get an answer.

Damn! A Funnier And More Accurate response than My Own!

I Wished I had thought of that!

Now that backline was superb too. For me Henry Paul was playing better in 95 than Lydon was in 92, but.... the Gregory/Edwards partnership was better than Botica/Edwards... but the 92 team didn't have the Robinson on the wing... but then again big Gene was unbelievable in the second half of the 92 season. It's a toughie!



Here's another challenge for John D H - can he come up with a better centre/wing pairing for Saints or Leeds than Miles/Offiah? (We could be waiting for a Wire league and cup double!!!

)

Can he come up with a better centre/wing combo for any club?

Or

Hampson/Lydon
T Iro/Lydon K Iro D Bell H Gill

Edwards/Gregory

Another line-up better than anything Stains or Leeds can offer!



Or maybe John D H's research will turn something up before Wire do the double...

Latics have more chance of doing the Double!

I havent even mentioned

Hanley
Kenny
Ferguson
(Hairs on the Back Of my neck standing up Just thinking about those 3!)
Ella
Preston
Mordt (Rarely gets a mention but what a good player!)
P Blake ( Only played a dozen games or so but was Unbelievable!)

Frightening isn't it.

However the Super Duper League is far more competitive.

The Leeds 1961 backline...

Thornett

Rosenburg

Hallas
Hattee

Ratcliffe

Jones
Evans

The Leeds backline from the 70s

Holmes

Smith

Hynes
Dyl

Atkinson

Hardisty
Hepworth

I'll be back later with some of Saints' superior backlines.

It is compaired to the 10 years before Super League.

May be showing my age here, but i can honestly say i have never heard of any of those players!

Not saying they wernt good, just pointing out how subjective this is!

For example.

I was on a stag do this weekend, and the conversation turned to greatest ever 13 after the hull game friday. We warriors fans being knowledgable, had the greats Miles meninga in the centres Pearl at loose and lewis at 6 etc.

A muppet of a castleford fan who was at least 40 started with Wellens at full back!!!!!!!!!!!!! He was quickly shunned and made to drink lots and lots of Fernabranca (sp) never to be seen again!

Yes, you are right, it is.

No it isn't. Unless by "competitive" you mean that standards are falling alarmingly.

Competitivness and standards are two different thinngs..

Now, more than one team has a chance of winning the comp, 15 years ago that was not the case. Hence the league is more competitive now.

So when, during our dominance, we won the league on points difference you're saying the team who scored as many league points as us were uncompetitive?

How many times?

Answer the question!

Well without knowing how many times it happend, its difficult. But, judging by the fact that you won 8 titles in 9 years, and 8 CCs in a row and you (for a fair period anyway) were the only full time team in the country, where as now, we have 14 full-time teams, a salary cap, and over the last 9 years 3 teams have won SL, 4 teams have won the CC, and only 1 team has won back to back titles I'd say it is more competitive.

You were full time before us pal!



Anyway, it's not difficult at all. We once only managed to win the league on points difference in an era when according to you no-one but Wigan had a chance of winning. Don't you see that just because Wigan had that success doesn't mean there weren't other top sides around at the time?

I can't be bothered to look it up but I would bet there has never been a 1, 2 dominance like you and Saints now have.

Still, all for the good of the game, eh?

You do know that Leeds were professional before us and Widnes weren't far behind, don't you?

I love this popular myth, wrong, but dont let that get in the way of a reason why clubs didnt turn pro when we did.

I dont ever recall Nasty Wigan making other teams stay part time!

It wasnt Wigans fault other clubs sold their players to us, they could have said no,

A guy in egypt offered me a camel for my girlfreind, i told him no simple! You dont have to sell just because someone offers!

Actually I was wrong earlier. We won the league in 92/3 from Saints on points diff then won again on points diff from both Bradford and Warrington in a 3 way tie a year later.

In the last 4 years there has been a Saints/Leeds 1, 2 at the top of the league. From 2008 going backwards they have finished 9&8, 5&4, 10&8 and 10&7 points above whoever was third.

But it's more competitve now, honest. Yeah, really. Anyone can win.

Maybe if at the end of the Year during those periods we had a Top 8 competition to decide who was the Best Maybe Wigan wouldn't have won 8 in 10/11 years would they as this would be a Knockout Comp!
Oh wait a minute we did, the Premiership! Now then How many clubs won that in those 10 years??
Oh Look - 5 different teams won it and a further 4 were in the Final !

League leaders 2005/2006/2007/2008 Saints!
Very Competitive!

GF winners in the last 10 years - 3 different teams!
Other teams int the Final - 2 different teams!

So Less different teams have made the SL Knockout Final over the last 10 years comapred to the Prem Final in the 10 years of our so called dominace!

Maybe if we had 1st past the post for the last 10 years Saints or Whoever may have won 10 in a row! Who Knows!

Lets take the CC!
Our period something like 3 different winners and - 7 different other finalists!

Last 10 years - 4 different winners and 3 different finalists!

Turn it into a Cup competion & you Can Influence/Manufacture a Competition were one doesnt really exist to the levels you think it does!

Seeing we finished 3rd last 2 x years & Saints fans think were crap what does that make teams 4 to 12! How does that make Super Duper League More Competitive?

As i said in a Bar on the Gold Coast after the World Cup Semi Final/Tournament Fiasco!
Us 12 can go outside and have a Competitive Game, It wouldn't mean we were any Good!

We have to stop searching for competitiveness and worry more about raising Excellence!

Jinkin Jimmy has already replied with a good post on this.

But I can't help but reply that even if you were right about the situation 15 years ago, I would rather have an uncompetitive league with one very strong team - at least we would stand some chance at international level - than a league with only mediocre and poor sides, which seems to be the way we are heading.

I would also say that it is still very early in the season - I have a feeling that by the end of the season the big clubs will be dominating as usual and the mythical level playing field will be as far off as ever.

The SL era has actually been a very poor one for small clubs finishing in the top 4 - if you look at the tables for the late 80s and early 90s you'll see that small clubs could and did finish in top positions far more often than they have since the SC came in.