We need the whole standard up- not just 14 top teams and ignore the rest. It would be like having a class full of 30 kids, putting all your effort into the most intelligent 5, and expecting the other 25 to improve. You dont improve the whole standard by only focussing on the top.

Good post and spot on.

Given the recent relationship berween GH and the other SL clubs, I'd be very surprised to see the likes of McManus or Lenaghan banging a drum to keep Leeds in SL if they finish bottom. of course it might get expanded next year but I don't reckon anyone will be out to do us special favours and nor should we expect any.

I'm not sure whether SL has got much weaker since I hardly watch it but I think the spectacle will improve once the new refereeing interpretations around the play the ball bed in.

The NRL seem very keen on recruiting players from SL so we must be producing quality. So maybe things aren't as bad as some people think?

I think when your team are on a downer it's easy to exaggerate.

Well this is southstander after all.

Being “on a downer” is what we do and why we’re successful.

The only way you could justify not relegating the bottom club this year is to expand the competition.

You can’t tell Toronto or Toulouse/Fev etc that they’re not coming up after they’ve spent money to do just that.

This is 100% true, SL has improved up until about 6 / 7 years ago, and since then we have started/have gone backwards. Its all down to the SL higher management and their abject failure to market the game correctly. They should be ashamed of their pot poor performance, a total disgrace. They are so hell bent of trying to expand it in Canada and the US as well as in Europe that they have let down the UK badly. SL will die if Sky pull the plug. We have a salary cap that is unfit for purpose, a cap of £2m, the same as what SKY give each SL team, no wonder the game is going backwards all the cap does is reduce the game down to the worse team in the league, the lowest denominator so to speak, we end up with the cream of the crap. The only way forward is to take the marketing away from SL, allow teams to market themselves and raise the salary cap immediately to £5m. If a team can afford £5m to spend on players then great we can then sign top quality players where fans will pay to watch these players, it will also attract more youngsters into the game and the quality of the game will be better. Money attracts money, its a risk but a well judged risk, Sky will then have to cough up more money for their TV rights. Without changes and trying to even the game across SL its turning away the fans and turning away natural talent. The purse strings must be cut and clubs allowed to spend more on players etc.
Only teams who rely on SKY money alone will fall by the wayside, each club has to take on their own responsibility. Cow sheds are that are called grounds need to be flattened.
Get rid of this stupid salary cap.

Getting rid of the cap should be the last thing the game does. The clubs would massively overspend if we did.

How would getting rid of the cap improve player development?

We need a different cap that yes rises steadily over time but that also forces spending on certain areas including player development.

There is nothing wrong with a cap. Our current set one though is for children’s games though, not professional full time sports. It’s ridiculously low, and an issue for the game. Three million would be a more realistic set amount.

The cap most definitely needs raising.. it's been too low for far far top long. The game is being left behind by other sports and obliterated by the NRL and union

It has been my belief for some years that the standard of RL in England has been in a state of decline. Unless those who are supposed to set the strategic agenda and direction for the sport get a grip soon I think we will see the game we love cease to exist as a competitive professional sport. There is simply not enough money in RL. The blame for that IMO sits on the shoulders of those in charge of directing and developing the game. We have taken so many decisions to spend resources trying to promote the game in the South of England, France and now the US and Canada. The priority should have been to build a competitive product in the heartlands first and from that secure base, with an attractive competitive product, promote the game at home and abroad. Instead of that we have a sport in decline grasping at straws.

Could not agree more

How do you think we will get more money into RL without expanding to southern England, France, Canada and USA? Companies do not see our current demographic as being worth investing sponsorship money into. It’s less to do with the product on the field and more to do with who is tuning in to watch it on TV unfortunately.

Easy to say the cap needs raising but where is the money coming from to pay for it?

Where on earth is money going to come from without, with the standard of product on show?

and the player pool

The blame for lack of money in the game sits squarely on the shoulders of the CEO’s and chairmen of the clubs. They are the ones who continue to sacrifice marketing, player development and the infrastructure of their club for short term gain by spending too much of their money on players.

In RL we have to adapt to the modern world and sadly we’re still stuck in the late 90’s where we think if we just get on Sky or BBC a few times we’ll be fine. When in reality the entire leisure, media and advertising landscape has changed massively and RL has been left behind.
People aren’t bothered about watching 2 ex-mining towns play in front of what are now viewed as small crowds in poor stadiums. Most people wouldn’t be able to place where 90% of SL clubs are on the map let alone feel any kind of affinity toward them.
We don’t have enough big games in front of big crowds between big clubs on TV and we certainly don’t follow up the big games to make any kind of long term impact.
No-one knows where the next England home game will be. No-one knows where the Magic Weekend will be.
We need to maximise the use of these games to expand the games reach. Why there was no tie-in with Newcastle when the Magic Weekend was at St James Park is just bizarre.

But we also desperately need a wider variety of clubs in SL than northern mining towns. Somewhere recognisable for people to attach themselves to.

Also, will raising the salary cap significantly actually produce better quality on the pitch? A couple more Aussies may be available but it won’t do anything to improve player production.

If we raise the cap it should be on a steady, manageable basis with a clear long term plan for how the cap will rise.
I’d also prefer to see a form of salary cap that incentivises marketing and infrastructure spending.

Agree with majority of that post. Very well said. Sal cap needs upping by a fair bit but I agree it's not the answer to everything

Is this going to be new theme now? Mate is simple, if you don't like the product stop watching it. It's not difficult.

That’s the answer is it Marty, if you don’t like it lump it? Rather than voice it and hope for change. So many good things happened in this world because of the voices of others. Good job they didn’t take your attitude.

Why can’t we have a product that we once had? A product that the NRL still has? We play the same sport. We used to put union to shame, now it’s raced ahead of us as entertainment. Shame on that sort of attitude.

And a raised cap isn’t just about big name Aussies, it’s about wanting kids to take up the sport also. Our players are poorly paid in comparison to other sports, and that is a direct consequence of the cap. No wonder the desire and intensity is not there.

I'm shocked you think the players deserve a big pay rise after all the quality of the play is in such decline isn't it? The players now arent as good as their counterparts from 15 years ago yet you think they deserve a big pay rise?

Why would you reward what you deem a poor quality and standard.

Personally I would love to see the players get better rewarded but the clubs cant afford it and the sport cant afford it if we are honest.

I'm not sure I get this viewpoint that the RFL aliens all it's focus promoting the game in France and Canada.

Catalan have been in superleague offer a decade and are as self sufficient as any of the English teams.

I thought that Toronto were entirely self funded, rather than it being an RFL idea.

I think it's just generally people from tin pot Northern town worried about someone else taking their seat are top table.

Fire me, new interest and be blood in the sport is a good thing. It attracts news and exposure and makes the game more globally accessible.

I think you have contradicted yourself there Marty. Before the cap was introduced players were on more money. Players were still wanting to play the game when introduced, and in the system. You would see another 15 years of those, as they were already committed. Coincidentally, as those same players have finished and out of the systems, the game as diminished. The cap came in in 1998.

The cap as a rule isn’t the main issue, it’s the amount as I repeat again, and leaving it where tin pot clubs can afford it, just to make them level with the top. In every sport where leagues exist, it’s top league is it’s pinnacle product. Why is ours so close to the bottom level? Because we have it all wrong, that is why. Attitudes need to change, and the gullibility of fans it appears needs to change quick.

The salary cap isn't the issue, it's the difference collated to the NRL.

It means that so many of our better players can go down under and play in a competition of better quality and be paid more money. It's win win for the player, and it fits help England, but the game over here is in slow decline.

It's in a downward spiral and I'm not sure there is a simple solution to fixing it