After watching tonight's game: Warrington V Widnes we find Warrington (for the time being) at the top of the Super League table.

We've seen a lot of entertaining games this year but the nagging thought/question which continually arises for me personally seems to be 'actually how good is this?'. I've watched a lot of NRL this year as well with the comfort of Premier Sports and without sounding like the old cliché anti-UK/Austracentric viewpoint we've seen too much of, I can't help feeling that the standard of SL is a good few beats off the pace.

Warrington were poor for the majority of the game tonight and have been flat all year, you can argue that numerous chances were created and bombed with the final pass or a silly error, however quality can only be judged on execution of any chances created.

As followers of the side top of the tree at present I'd be interested to hear your views on how your own side and your co-title challengers are performing. For me, the only real quality we have seen has been from Leeds in the 3 or 4 games post WCC and Saints in the last 2 weeks. Other than that, I haven't seen much to convince me that this competition is anywhere near the Southern hemisphere's equivalent.

Of course I may be jumping the gun, we may well see Wire, Wigan, Leeds, Hudds, Saints & Catalans all hit their peak at the right time and see an enthralling finale to the year, however on current standards I can't say I've seen all too much to persuade me of that...

Can't argue with anything you said their Badger.

I find it hard to disagree with that, but you're also talking about a team that got its fingers burnt and was ridiculed for 'peaking too early' last season.

We're far from at the top of our game - if we were playing in the NRL, we might have to be playing at a higher standard week after week. As it was, we could leave five of our best players on the bench and give a few kids a run out and still win by 36 points. That'll do for me, but I'm under no illusion that we're not playing like NRL grand final winners at this stage of the season.

Fair comment, would you then agree that we appear to be developing a culture in which form only counts over an 8-10 week period at the business end of the season? We can certainly draw comparisons with Premier League football, in particular Manchester United who seem to do this year on year.

If so, how do you think this impacts not only the quality of the league for the earlier part of the season, but how younger players develop when thrown into a fairly low intensity game where just enough is done to win the game?

No, not really. A team that is performing poorly when the next round of the cup or the round after (end of April) could quite easily find itself out of the one competition it has a chance of winning before that 8-10 week period of which you speak. Take the Easter weekend in the context it exists - all clubs have to manage their squads, and Warrington have the luxury of being able to bring in players from the u20s who can do a job while keeping senior players fresh for a Monday game.

Sure, we have to work towards peaking in September/October, but our season will come crashing down long before that if we don't perform and build now. Huddersfield's in 2011 certainly did.



Those young players will have gained far more tonight than in three months slogging it out in the u20s. For a start, they'll benefit from the knowledge that, even if they broke a leg in training tomorrow, hopping around on one foot they would still be better than Ben Cross.

Good night.

Something isn't right, you can't quite put your finger on it. Tonight was a great chance to boost our confidence but for large parts of the game we still made it hard work for ourselves, i think the only difference in the end was the quality of players that we can afford compared to them.

I fear the worse on monday especially of Bridge is missing as that would mean Matty Blythe returns, we don't look to have much coheasian, its like the players are not on the same wavelength as each other. Its very off the cuff with not much control or direction.

I thought Ryan Atkins and Chris Riley were our biggest threats, they both played very well, Atkins did some good strong runs and finished great for his try, Chris Riley goes from strength to strength, the finish for his try where he wrong footed the Widnes cover was very classy.

absolutely.... were just not performing.... smith gave some under performing players a chance to right a few wrongs tonight..... and they didn't really deliver.

carvell and wood have to top the list..... apart from hill and Westwood the forwards are looking very lacklustre.

A point about Chris Hill, based on the what we have seen this year, he has to be one of the top forwards in Super League, he carries the ball with more vigor than any and I like the way he just does his job and doesn't tend to look for a daft offload.

Myler looked to have a bit more freedom tonight, maybe more responsibility being the senior halfback and showed signs that he could run the game more in Briers' absence. Compared to someone like Lomax he maybe seems to lack that instinct you see in good halves.

If you can afford to lose tight games this year against top 5 opposition, which given the current format, I think you can. Do you think that 1 or 2 young players playing in games against said opposition may benefit more?

For instance, if you read autobiographies of players like Johns, Lockyer, Fitler, Langer, even Barrie McDermott, Jason Robinson, their first game at the top level, they will talk about being out of their depth, blowing out their s, finding it difficult. Which then made them realise how much they needed to work at progressing. Do you think Dwyer, Currie et al with have the same recollections of tonight?

Conversely, you could say that our U20's comp and the training at youth level more than prepares them for their debuts. It's an interesting argument and if you can afford to lose games early on then maybe you can afford to blood some of the younger players in the closer games, I don't know.

Don't get me wrong, the young players will take a great deal out of tonight and every subsequent outing they have, but will that just be a somewhat restricted idea of what it is like to play first grade until they come across true competitive opposition?

The standard of SL at the top is not what it was a few years ago, I have thought this for a while.

The peak years for me were around 2004-05 when you had really strong Saints, Leeds and Bradford teams and a pretty competitive Hull as well at the top.

On the other hand it has made it more of an interesting league in that we have had big movers up the table in recent seasons - us, Wigan and Hudds went from being well off the pace to serious contenders in a short space of time, this didn't used to happen before, the only team that ever threatened to break the monopoly of the top ones was Hull and they developed more steadily.

This garbage about the regular season counting for nowt has been over-anaylsed to death. Leeds are the only team EVER to win SL from such a lowly finishing position. One exception does not prove a rule.

Yes last year was a particular rarity in terms of Leeds' final league position. However in the last 5 seasons of Super League, the League Leaders shield winners have only once gone on to win the grand final.

The point is that there seems to be a growing attitude amongst Super League fans and indeed pundits that results earlier in the season aren't all that important. Now, with the structure of the play off system as it is, it is a natural attitude to take, however what impact does that have on the intensity of earlier games, the development of younger players blooded in these games and hence overall quality of the league?

Thats one prediction i was hoping wouldn't come true, as well as the above the team spirit that we've had in the past looks to have gone, Lee Briers having a go at Mike Cooper for not realising it was the last tackle etc. The body language of quite a few players didn't look convincing today, its a real test for Tony Smith to work out what the problems are and to try and get us some momentum.

I think you've answered your own question there, and I agree.

Wrong.
Leeds in 2009 and Wigan in 2010 did it.

So that's two out of the last three who have done it.