This debate has run and run but think its worth another go around.

Rugby League is the best sport in the world and it has the fittest and most respected players. The game is for entertainment first and then the sentiment comes later.

I for one would sooner watch the likes of Clint Newton, Michael Dobson, Willie Mason over some of the average players from this country.

If you stripped out the overseas players and tried to make 14 Super league teams you would have a comp that was dull and slow for years to come until we develop enough players.

We owe a lot to the Aussies, I think we should leave the current number in each team as it is now.

SL has come on leaps and bounds because people like Mark Broadhurst came over a few years ago and made a difference.

The Aussies have got it 100% right and we need to replicate it over here so we can beat them at their National sport.

Isn't Aussie Rules their National Sport?

overseas players are great to have and going forward as a competition we still need to bring in good overseas players to maintain good standards and adds a little excitment. but we need clubs to reduce overseas players but still have the better aussie players that bring alot to the club and competition but keep introducing young players

What/How do we class as a national sport?

IMO RL isnt the Aussies national sport - its not played in all the areas of the country (to the highest level that im aware of), Cricket is up there isnt it, as well as Oz rules? PNG is one country that we can truly say its there National Sport, dont know of any others?...

Obviously ours is Fairy ball.

Why doesn't every club just have a team full of overseas players and then we can be entertained every week, sod the English game!!

Id rather see the best 17 each week that my team could put out then 17 lads all picked cos they were born round the corner from Craven Park

You'll be pretty gutted when Vella, Fisher, Newton, Galea and Lovegrove leave then.

we've been e at national level forever, just do as you like under a salary cap for me

Well if we've been in the past let's bin our international side and academys.

just sayin that we keep trying everything and still get tonked, whats the point

Are you suggesting we stop trying to produce players to a international level?

No, he's saying why force teams to play sub standard players just because in the future we might beat Oz in a mickey mouse tournament that club fans would really, when we are being honest, happily sacrifice in favour of stronger versions of our respective clubs...I think.

As the father of two youngsters who play the game at junior level I would love to see them play professionally. It's all about balance - sure we need some overseas stars but it is essential we breed our own too!

Very selective, what about superhuman Aussies like Garret Crossman and Daniel Fitzhenry ?

Pah, we've managed much worse than that, I present for the jury, Leroy Joe.

I like to Rovers win, but I think that the thing I would like to see most in the game would be an Ashes series win, never happened in my life time, still looks a long way off.

No, Aussie Rules is not the national sport.

On the Australian mainland you have 3 major cities Sydney, Brisbane & Canberra where Rugby League is the dominant winter sport and you have 3 major cities Melbourne, Adelaide & Perth where Aussie rules is the dominant winter sport. Each sport has tried to expand into the others area but with only limited success.

The point is that in the 3 cities I mention Rugby League is massive, on a scale umpteen times bigger than in Britain and top sportsmen tend to gravitate to the sport.

IMO Rugby League in Britain cannot and will not ever come close to matching the standard in Australia.

But New Zealand can?

Which suggests the problem isn't merely about Australians playing here but getting more Brits playing in Oz perhaps....?

i think there should be more of a balance, to give young british kids a chance. id gladly go back to 5 overseas players, non of this fed trained/club trained/kolpak stuff.

the teams in the national leagues have mostly home grown players' but not many get to super league standard.

Big gap between part-time and full-time - that was part of why P&R didn't work too well after the advent of SL. On the other hand, Joel Clinton talked at the fans forum about how he was an apprentice plumber while playing 2nd grade. I guess in Aus 2nd grade is seen as a step towards 1st, rather than usually being a step away.

We have not always been poop as you put it! untill the 1980,s Australia & the Kiwis struggled to beat us at all, that is a period of 85 years we had the wood on them. What broke the mould was the amount of cash that went into the game down under alowing them to be full time pro. Then at first they took loads of top British players to start them off ( Mike stevenson, Phill Lowe & Knocker Norton to name a few). After only 16 years of full time pro players we are still a way behind & will be untill kids in the UK (& parents) see sport as a worthwhile career path. To our shame Union has made a better fist of pro sport than League. We will just have to hope we can improve the national side as if we dont the club game will die as it will be starved of cash & publicity except in a few places like Hull, with the lack of cash kids will go to other sports to earn a living.

Making it three in total would be better,
with only three spaces each club would only be interested in signing world class players which our youngsters can watch and learn from.

Yes because nearly all the Kiwi team have the benefit of being groomed in the NRL and then playing there week in week out. There is even a New Zealand team playing in the NRL.

Also New Zealand as a nation is obsessed with rugby. Union is the dominant sport but Rugby League is easily second.

I'm afraid Rugby League in our country is a minor sport. That is why we can't compete but luckily we can still watch a quality product thanks mainly to the overseas imports.

Between 1990-92 there was little between GB and Oz a time when iirc we were limited to 3 overseas players per team.

We need quality not quantity from overseas recruitment in SL IMO.