Meh, if players want to give the NRL a shot then let them. The majority of them come back with their tail between their legs anyway. Sure, I miss seeing the likes of Graham over here in Super League but if they want to follow just the money then I question why I'd want them in a Wire shirt anyway. We'll always create great talent, some of them will be lured away and some of them won't, the world will go round as it does. Maybe it's just because Warrington haven't really been targeted aside from Cooper yet. I suppose I'd be pretty miffed if we lost Currie to an NRL side which has to be on the cards, but it is what it is, we don't have the money to compete, and most teams wouldn't regardless of whatever we raise the cap to.

I almost see that as flattering that the nrl think players in the super league are good enough to recruit. We are always hearing how our league is second best to theirs but it just shows the talent is here somewhere. Another angle is that it is positive for the national team if English players are recruited and trained to nrl standard.

It goes both ways of course with us recruiting a lot of their players, even if they are coming towards the end of their careers like a lot of them, it is still entertaining to watch some of those guys. Take players like Kurt gidley or frank Pritchard, getting on a bit but still great players and fun to watch. You're worrying over nothing my friend

You could say it is definately on a dip in platying standard, but that might be more to do with the lack of quality Aussies coming over.

The biggest thing for me is we are currently looking down the barrel of Yorkshire losing its biggest RL team to the championship. Bradford need to get back, the lost support base there is having an effect on the game, as well as teams just not playing well at the moment, maybe due to the lack of Aussie coaches in the game.

I know we need to bring our own coaches through, but the Aussie coaches bring a more detailed and intricate game plan I feel, there are some great players about but the coaches are bit pap.

WELL we will still have most of the English players we have now because they are not good enough for super league never mind the NRL

If our young lads are good enough for the NRL sign them up to a long contract then, otherwise expect to loose them to another club. At KR we have lost a small number as they were free to move if we had faith we should have had them on long contracts & held them to it or hammered them with a huge fee or not release them.

Not much can be done due to the ridiculous decision to sign up to such a long TV deal at a time when the sports rights market is booming with BT and SKY battling for subscribers and online streaming services emerging.

Some players will still want to go to the NRL to test themselves, but a bit of a salary increase (with a higher cap due to better TV money) would make others think twice. Instead we're stuck in this situation for years.

It's not an existential threat though, is it?

South American football continues, despite the drain of talent to Europe. As do smaller leagues around Europe, despite the financial dominance of bigger leagues.

The quality might dip a bit, but as long as the entertainment and sporting drama is there people will watch. Fair enough, the world club challenge might not, after all, become RL's Champions League, but I was hardly banking on that.

But people wont watch. Not in large numbers any way. This game is choosing its own demise.

Doesn't matter if we raise our cap another half a million to a million, the Aussies tv deal will still allow nrl clubs to pick n choose who they want.

Nothing can be done, the NRL TV deal and salary cap are massive compared to super league, and rightly so, every single game is televised and the viewing figures far higher, so it makes sense they can sell the rights for more money.

England's best players already ply their trade in the NRL and more will move over, there will still be good players in Super League and it will still be an entertaining product to watch. It's better our players move to the NRL than union, at least they are still in the sport.

In terms of the drop in standard and player development, It would help if young players over the age of 19 had a competition to play in.

People don't watch in big numbers now! there are about 75000 (crude estimate) League fans who watch the sport live in the UK & has not changed much over my life time. The bigest threat is no decent international programe Plus the spiraling cost of putting the sport on at all levels.

Why?

Dutch domestic football was much stronger in the early 70s (relative to the rest of Europe at the time). Now all the best Dutch players move abroad - the league carries on.

People watched part-time RL players for decades, without too much complaint about the overall quality.

And as others have mentioned, we're not turning down opportunities that would make a huge difference to the talent drain.

If, for example, the RFL could get 20% more tv revenue, it'd still be dwarfed by the Australian deal. If we, as fans, could be perceived as a more desirable advertising demographic (rather than potentially interested in mushy peas, Romanian cars and inexpensive cider), the difference in sponsorship revenue would still only make a marginal difference.

The Papuan and French leagues can't compete with SL and in turn SL can't compete with the NRL. In football, the A-league can't compete with the EPL.

If you set matching the NRL as your objective, then yes - you should have very real concerns that SL will fail. Or consider a more sensible measure of success.

Better for the sport as a whole that players go to the NRL than to Union.

If anything players moving to the NRL could potentially be a good thing long term. English players playing in the NRL makes them better players which in turn makes the England team stronger. Stronger England team leads to international RL being a much more attractive prospect, which in turn leads to more money in the game over here.

Well, it would do, if they played more games...

This "doesn't matter so much if they play abroad, it'll improve our international side" argument is all very well if you're talking about the Croatian (say) football side, because football has a credible international game. We just don't, and are a long way from getting one, even on optimistic scenarios.

The majority of the English players will return to SL at some point as well. They'll come back better players.

But it is concerning that we are becoming a feeder league. The World Club Series could have been a great concept.

I can see the top few SL clubs breaking away in the next 10 years and becoming a group of the NRL in a World League. It's the only way they'll be able to compete for players and money.

A better scenario would be 6 new geographically based clubs playing in a ' World NRL ' with existing clubs reverting back to either winter or a british championship

But shortsighted fans wouldn't accept that

We're not becoming a feeder league though. Sure, the best players such as Burgess and Graham may get spots in the NRL but it says a lot if we are producing the best players in their positions, why can't the much vaunted NRL produce good enough players of their own?

Is the Premier League a feeder for the Spanish league? Hardly, yet "the best" players leave clubs to go to Barca or Madrid.

So Aussie players not coming over is causing a drop in standard ?

If this were the case, ho come we haven't beaten the Aussies in a test series for quite so long.
Back in the glory days, when Wigan (and others) were signing overseas players at the top of their game, we still couldn't beat them and nobody was bemoaning the drop in quality down under. In fact, by having the British game "nurturing" so many overseas players, they just got stronger and stronger.

With the current situation, where we have a decent (probably a record number) of British players at top NRL clubs, we may actually have a chance of finally beating them in a meaningful test series, which would be a huge boost for the game over here.

Everyone is talking about a lack in quality over here but, just because Leeds and Saints are struggling doesn't mean the game is going down the pan,.it just gives their fans something else to moan about.

If Cas were playing under the Leeds name, everyone would be raving about their fast open style of rugby and Hull seem to be doing what Wigan have done, by bullying other teams with a power game plus, having some quality to score plenty.

Although we may not have one of the "big four" dominating the comp, this season is THE most open competition in years, the very thing that SL has craved since it's inception.

It would be a brave man that predicted the 4 clubs that will make the play offs and although Leeds and Huddersfield appear to be battling it out for the wooden spoon, there is no certainty in this and nobody would have place that wager at the beginning of the season.

Just because "your" club is struggling, it doesn't make the whole comp low grade or poor quality.

There have been plenty of great games, plenty of upsets and uncertainty over who will win the big prize, which seems like a decent situation.

What we have is a low quality unpredictable and entertaining super league, the "big four" have just been replaced with another 4 clubs in Hull, Warrington, Wigan and the Catalans. As for Wigan remaining in the "big four" most Wigan fans will tell you that their team performances are poor this season and are just doing enough in some games to grind out wins.

Defences are atrocious this year this is showing up in the league table with so many teams on negative points difference contributed by an enormous amount of 50+ points games, injuries are playing a large part in reducing player quality this year as clubs have to dip into weakened squads of players. The salary cap restriction is not helping either not many clubs are risking a small squad of quality players and opting for larger squad depth.

There will always be huge margins in the points differences of the clubs at the top of the league, compared to those at the bottom.
The real story of the season and perhaps the main reason for threads like this, is the performance of Leeds Rhinos.
If they had carried on, where they left off last season, we wouldn't have this thread but, they have flopped quite spectacularly.
Saints, under Cunningham are just not firing.
Their squad, on paper looks very good indeed but, Cunningham just hasn't been able to get them to preform as a team.
If you look at Cas and to a lesser extent, Wakefield, they have a coach, who has his team performing way ahead of expectations and Powell is getting close to the maximum possible from his squad.
Cunningham, Anderson, McDermott are getting nowhere near the max from their respective squad's and this has people saying the quality of SL is dropping, it simply isn't the case.
Instead, we have 3 or 4 of the top clubs who are being very patient (rightly so) with under achieving coaches.

With the current structure, although there is the potential of a Championship club gaining promotion, this is less likely to happen with Leeds and Huddersfield included in the Middle 8's but, it will certainly add some interest, when the games come around.

Warrington playing crap on the magic weekend may be a blessing in disguise.

Quote ="saintcj"Things are not looking good and i dont see what can be done. how low will the standard get, and how many fans will simply lose interest before something is done? www.sthelensreporter.co.uk/sport ... -1-7934608 Nrl could be the way forward for sky sports and we just adopt an nrl team.'" Genuine my backside. it's funny how these threads are all currently eminating from Leeds and especially Saints fans - who's teams are suddenly not able to dominate in a way their high and mighty fans expect. You ask Cas, Hull, Wakey, Catalan and Wires fans if the game is being played at a lower standard than in the past and they will say no, it's better - odd isn't it. I've watched this game for thirty years and the standard has never been this good. Tries are being created through ball play and not physical prowess in the size department - knock on and other errors are very rare, hardly ever see a F/B or winger who can't handle the high ball (at most clubs anyway) etc etc. This year I've seen my own team play some great RL, but I've seen Cas, Hull, Widnes and Salford do the same. I though the best pure RL on offer at the magic weekend was Hudds who out Sainted Saints. It's what we wanted, a level playing field where results were unpredictable. However some "fans" can"t take the results of what they wished for and now claim standards have dropped to ease their pain. Well standards have not dropped just Saints and Leeds. Still when they recover next season I'm sure all will be forgiven and these two clubs will have single handedly restored quality to SL

Quote ="saintcj"Things are not looking good and i dont see what can be done. how low will the standard get, and how many fans will simply lose interest before something is done? www.sthelensreporter.co.uk/sport ... -1-7934608 Nrl could be the way forward for sky sports and we just adopt an nrl team.'" Genuine my backside. it's funny how these threads are all currently eminating from Leeds and especially Saints fans - who's teams are suddenly not able to dominate in a way their high and mighty fans expect. You ask Cas, Hull, Wakey, Catalan and Wires fans if the game is being played at a lower standard than in the past and they will say no, it's better - odd isn't it. I've watched this game for thirty years and the standard has never been this good. Tries are being created through ball play and not physical prowess in the size department - knock on and other errors are very rare, hardly ever see a F/B or winger who can't handle the high ball (at most clubs anyway) etc etc. This year I've seen my own team play some great RL, but I've seen Cas, Hull, Widnes and Salford do the same. I though the best pure RL on offer at the magic weekend was Hudds who out Sainted Saints. It's what we wanted, a level playing field where results were unpredictable. However some "fans" can"t take the results of what they wished for and now claim standards have dropped to ease their pain. Well standards have not dropped just Saints and Leeds. Still when they recover next season I'm sure all will be forgiven and these two clubs will have single handedly restored quality to SL

When our bar is part-time RL or a bit part league like the eredivise the game is already lost. The game is managing it's own decline and has managed to convince a certain section of the fan base that this is not only unavoidable but acceptable

You are stating that the decline of Dutch football from the 70s to now is something we should aim for. We aren't even hoping to stand still anymore

Only vasty could have such a victim mentality that a comment on the standard of SL is an insult to Wakefield