Been very happy watching the Championship this season, it's reinvigorated my love of RL, it's only the clear mismatches when a part-time side meets a side that is full-time/almost full-time that spoil it. Although I saw Leigh comfortably beat London today, I can safely say they're unlikely to do anything to improve the bottom half of SL unless they're planning to sign 8 to 10 SL standard players in the off season.

It's not great.

It's funny as the NRL is being questioned due to the bottom 8 sides not competing but those bottom 8 sides are way ahead of SL.

The top NRL sides are playing a different sport to what we see in super league. The standard has dropped massively and year on year seems to get worse.

I've never not watched so many games in a season but i get my fix watching NRL and watching SL after is a difficult watch.

I'm really not sure how the standard can get better when the days of signing top players in from Australia are over and anyone decent on this side of the world coming through will be snapped up quickly by an NRL club.

Totally agree mate, I usually catch at least one NRL and I’ll not bother with a “standard” SL game nowadays, the two leagues are night and day. We’re in a real catch 22 as you say, no top Aussies come over here anymore due to exchange rates and the NRL salary cap and we don’t have enough people playing in this country to produce top line talent in depth. I’m hoping the World Cup and/or IMG can jump start the patient because it’s on life support at the moment sadly.

So you're paying to catch and watch the odd game in the NRL? OK.

Is that the only game that you've seen Leigh play today?

Eh?

It's the only time I've seen them in the flesh, I seem to remember seeing them on Premier Sports or Our League, don't remember which.

Yesterday was a bit like watching a SL team play a part-time team in CC, they don't have to be especially good, they just need to use their superior conditioning and stronger squad to roll over the opponent. The problem I see with Leigh is a lack of raw pace and too much dependence on the sort of overseas players that would be squad fillers in the lower half of SL. The tempo that will roll over part-time teams at Championship level is still some way off the bottom half of SL.

Thankfully iptv exists so I'm not restricted to whatever games sky show. Iptv has NRL 24/7 on fox so thankfully I'll see every play off game.

My club seem to manage it

You sure about that ?

Is it legal to do that?




You also have a like from the notorious atomic, maybe he has the same set up too.

11 different winners of the NRL since 1998 as well.
If we had either more quality or unpredictability, it’d be some consolation.

I mean nobody expects the CFL to match the NFL but 8 of its 9 teams have won a Grey Cup since 2010.

Some task for IMG.

I don't see that as IMG's issue.

All clubs get the same TV money (that I know of) and have the same Salary Cap. Go out and improve.

They're starting off with a not very compelling offering, and no immediately obvious (to me) way of improving it substantially.



The central distribution and cap does vary a bit across SL but that isn't the fundamental problem. Variation in total revenue and the impact of long-term domination should also be considered.



Fair point. But it feels like it is (almost?) too late to adopt a traditional approach to that. If SL's opponent clubs want to enjoy life more, I think they may need to consider radical change.

Agree with this! Couldn't see any ESL team making the 8 in the NRL at the moment. We'll continue to pick up their "bad boys" and as soon as they get a MOS nomination the NRL will call them back. It is what it is! Really looking forward to the Play-offs which start tomorrow. Would love a Parra v Panthers Grand Final!

100% sure mate, yes. Croft has been great for you no doubt. But he wasn’t a “top Aussie”, he wasn’t in the first team, he was a reserve grader like Hastings, French, Field etc. That’s totally my point.

He wasn't a "Reserve Grader" he played around 40 times for Melbourne Storm in three years no mean feat when you think of the competition, then 26 times for the Brisbane Broncos in a two season stint. Very much a 1st Teamer.

Ow yeah and Reserve graders don't usually play in NRL Grand Finals like Brodie Croft did partnering Cameron Munster against Cooper Cronk and Luke Keary.

If you want Reserve Graders think more Cade Cust .

Some reserve line up that was........


James Tedesco Fullback Billy Slater
Daniel Tupou Wing Suliasi Vunivalu
Latrell Mitchell Centre Will Chambers
Joseph Manu Centre Curtis Scott
Blake Ferguson Wing Josh Addo-Carr
Luke Keary Five-eighth Cameron Munster
Cooper Cronk Halfback Brodie Croft
Jared Waerea-Hargreaves Prop Jesse Bromwich
Jake Friend (c) Hooker Cameron Smith (c)
Sio Siua Taukeiaho Prop Tim Glasby
Boyd Cordner (c) 2nd Row Felise Kaufusi
Mitchell Aubusson 2nd Row Joe Stimson
Victor Radley Lock Dale Finucane
Isaac Liu Interchange Kenny Bromwich
Dylan Napa Interchange Christian Welch
Zane Tetevano Interchange Brandon Smith
Ryan Matterson Interchange Nelson Asofa-Solomona
Trent Robinson Coach Craig Bellamy

65 games in 6 seasons.

He was seen very much as a reserve grader for the future, thus he was not picked up by any NRL clubs, thus came to SL.

[iCroft was described by the media at the time as the next Cooper Cronk and was labelled a "Cooper Cronk clone"[/i

Shite that Cronk fella . BTW the queue for his services, is getting longer by the day.

Squad fillers what drugs you on



Players like Blake ferguson nene Mcdonald inu would pretty much walk in every super league team especially the first 2

Leigh have the strongest team that's got promoted for many years ( if they do )

He wasn’t a “top Aussie” though