Valentine Homes! He might make a good fullback someday but is nowhere near big enough to get sets on the front foot, same with gagai, whilst Oates will soon get moved to the back row as his finishing is good but not great, although atm I would put him on the same level as the English wingers I mentioned, I see very little difference between him and Mgilverey for example

Corey Parker cannot pass or kick with the vision of SO'L, certainly can't run games in the way he can, and is actually more of a power forward who can offload

Matt Scott has only been the 'standout' because he is australian and the media over there big him up despite the fact that he has been out performed by Graham and Bromich foe or years, imo Peacock was better than Graham most seasons when they played together (although both arguably played their best stuff when Graham moved down under) and was therefore probably better than Matt Scott

The statement about an NRL team scoring 100 points in the WCC is pretty ridiculous, they not have 'every advantage' thats just another myth that they used to give when they lost, we have the advantage of being at home, but the preseasons start at the same time and any advantage we get from playing 1 or 2 SL games is nullified by the fact we have only one week to prepare

I do agree about the quality of coaching though and of the widening gap between SL and NRL that the RFL are ignoring

just not about the quality of the players themselves

This is getting ridiculous, if you honestly think that Merrin or Watene-Zelezniak or Lillyman is better than every player in SL then you need to get you rheas checked
And if you genuinely thnk that then why would you even bother watching SL at all

This myth only stands up if you ignore all the successes of players going down under and if you ignore the flops we have seen come up here

Morris and Hodkinson shouldnt be playing for England, they have also represented Australia. On current form my England team would be;

1. Sam Tomkins
2. Jermaine McGillvary
3. Leroy Cudjoe
4. Ben Currie
5. Dom Manfredi
6. Gareth Widdop
7. Luke Gale
8. T Burgess
9. Josh Hodgson
10. James Graham
11. John Bateman
12. Elliot Whitehead
13. S Burgess

14. Daryl Clark
15. G Burgess
16. Scott Taylor/Mike Cooper
17. Joe Westerman

If your going on current form how is Cudjoe in there, Tomkins tbf has just come and hasn't been to bad but definitely not form fullback. And don't think Westerman should be getting into 17 with all the backrowers we do have.

Based on dream team stats, Cudjoe is the best centre in the competition this year. Not so sure myself, but on stats thats the bottom line.

I think the point about coaching is well made & it applies across the board in British sport.
English football under an English coach/manager is now a laughing stock.
We now have foreigners coaching virtually all the top premiership soccer clubs.
England RU & cricket only really prospered when they appointed Aussie coaches.
Off the top of my head it's only in Cycling that our coaches lead the world, even there they had Aussie support.
Why do we not produce world class coaches/managers?

Oh wow! On form, Jermaine Mc, Cudjoe, Widdop, T Burgess, Bateman (!!), G Burgess, Westerman shouldnt be in that 17

In terms of coaches I'd say there are two problems.

Firstly in order to develop, our L-Plate coaches need to go to Australia to learn. They need to be learning from the best, not coaches who wouldn't get a first team job in Australia in a million years. They would also see how junior development works right through to NRL coaching. British coaches seem incredibly reluctant to learn their trade - how many high profile players do we see jump onto the coaching merry go round with at best a bit of Academy or assistant work in SL?

I know McNamara isn't popular, but I have enormous respect for the fact that he's come over to Australia to better himself as a coach. Right now if I were running a club and it was a choice between BM and McNamara I'd go the latter.

Secondly, clubs still seem to want to go for their own ex-players for some reason. Banging on about 'culture' or 'knowing the club' as though that makes up for a complete lack of technical skills. The same logic seems to make clubs want to go for name ex players rather than good coaches - bizarre given that they seem to be willing to overlook lack of a stellar career when choosing Aussie coaches (Robinson and Maguire had no great playing careers).

Thirdly, its a bit of a stereotype, but I do think we have far too many props coaching in SL. Somebody who's whole career has been about making yards and tackling people running straight at them is less likely to have as good an appreciation as a halfback or hooker. I'm not saying there won't be exceptions but when I look around the NRL I see ex halfbacks and hookers (Hasler, Barrett, Stuart, McFadden, Green, Taylor, Bellamy sort of, Flanagan, Brown) for the main.

SL is miles behind the NRL, and is handicapped by having less money and a far smaller player pool (plus the self-imposed lack of reserve competition). But the game as a whole doesn't maximise its on-field performances by going cheap on coaching.

Sadly Brisbane I agree with everything above.

I would never take Mcbanana he showed against NZ that he has no attacking thoughts in his body and would play safety first and boring RL
I would be okay with our coaches going down under to learn, but we need to keep our identity somewhat, there are no successful teams in history that have just been copycats
As for the ex-player thing, that happens in every sport, its usually nothing to do with culture, it is usually just that a player stays within an organisation when learning his coaching craft, Ajax and Barcelona do this very effectively

I do however agree with the point about forwards becoming coaches, it is no surprise really that England have the best pack in the world but lack quality in the halves, Mcguire has said that he wants to go into coaching to give young halfbacks help that he felt he didn't receive, it is probably no surprise that the halfbacks who have improved the most in the last few years have all played under Powell