Well I think the defence has improved massively, regardless of the opposition. If it is anything to do with the opposition, then why is every one else no where near to us in this department. And credit to Printer for trying to make the argument for quite a while that we were improving there.

Personally I think a big part is JJB missing also. We concede less penalties, and don't leave yawning gaps with his enforced absence.

William is correct, unlike yourself he is not putting his head in the sand and hiding behind "this is what I do on a Friday so who are you to criticise" or even worse "Go and follow another sport if you don't love what is on field"!!

The standards on the pitch have fallen significantly in the last few years - even Stevie Wonder can see that - that position is unsustainable. RL is, for most people, a distraction from the pressures of everyday life not the be all and end all of their existence?

Whilst ever that is the case the sport needing to offer value for money is paramount - £20 to watch a glorified training session in laughable facilities is not good value. The same can be said of the game at Wakefield and whilst the facilities are better at Leeds the quality on the field of the last two games have been similarly uncompetitive.

The sport is in a catch 22 position it needs money to attract better players but it needs better players to attract the money. One thing is certain unless things improve on the field the financial status of the game will continue to decline. The fact you cannot see that suggests to me you have head so far in the sand that you can do a headstand without the need for your hands as support.

I am concerned at the state of the game in this country. There are to many clubs who simply can't afford to play with the big boys. They survive on minute crowds by using sky money to prop them up. I'm not sure how the game gets out of the mire. Short term you'd improve SL by dropping to 10 teams, but yours send a few clubs to the wall. The lower SL clubs seem to rest on their laurels knowing they will get their sky handout so they don't need to sell the games to people. They are complacent and are the reason that the salary cap has stayed constant fire a decade. If The salary was working correctly then we'd have seen it increase year on year. As it is is stayed constant and has diluted the quality at the top and the leagues best players have moved elsewhere.

Love him or hate him the likes of Koukash coming in and wanting to change things a bit is what the game needs. He's at least trying to take a traditional also ran team and make them better.

The only thing I'd add to that is that the sport needs money to attract better players to clubs other than the usual suspects (ie the five teams who you can even now predict will be in the playoffs).

Its absolutely pointless to let the usual suspects sign the best players with this "wishlist" of more money, if this wishlist came true then you need central contracts and players allocated to the clubs who DON'T regularly make the playoffs, however that would need a massive change in the way that club owners and more especially supporters cling to their own club interests - very few people in and out of the game have the actual concept of professional rugby league at heart, I'm convinced that most of what is now down to a hardcore of club supporters are quite happy to see their own team walk all over opposition teams by 50 points every week - its extremely short sighted.

There is nothing short sighted about that at all. People pay good money and support THEIR team. There is nothing wrong with that or a desire to see THEIR team hammer another. It happens in the NRL also. It is incredibly arrogant and ignorant to critisize them for that.

We all want a competition that produces high quality intense games, but why should supporters put money into a club to be penalised for supporting a club that is run successfully? The problem is from the bottom, not from the top.

nail on head

But the problem is that top flight RL can not compete for funding by having an ever shrinking pool of successful clubs in a smaller Super League. On the other side of the coin it can not attract more cash off the back of an ever increasing number of "no contest" games. IMO we have seen the emergence of a real chicken and egg crisis over the last 5 or 6 years. In essence we need a more intensive and competitive competition to attract more money into the game, but we need more money more widely distributed to achieve a more competitive competition. Again IMO we have squandered opportunities and cash on a variety of ill conceived changes and schemes. Not least of these has been the various attempts to favour wider geographical participation over ensuring that the game was in good shape as a truly competitive sport, before moving out of the "heartlands".

I am genuinely concerned about the outlook for full time professional RL in this country. I hope that the powers that be have a "plan" but I see no real evidence to bolster that hope. If they do not, I fear that we will see a continuation of the current managed decline and eventual oblivion.

In which case I look forward to being able to buy a season ticket just for the five or six competitive home games each season, gradually reducing year on year to five, or four, or three - we've been here before in the 1980s with Wigan, remember ?

I'm sorry, but some of the posts above are insane.

'If you had no salary cap, you'd need central contracts to allocate players to the teams who weren't competitive' .

It's this kind of sticking-plaster mentality that holds RL back. You want an immediate solution, and not to have to ask the hard questions about why a team is never succesful, or can't compete.

Shock of the day, some clubs are not commercially viable even with their sky money. Almost every club that has gone down or been exceptionally poor for a season has done so because they cannot get the fans through the doors. Fans generate ticket sales, merch sales, food & drink sales, and draw ad revenue and sponsorship. Without fans, trying to run a SL club is clould cuckoo.

The only way you can overcome that problem is by either creating commercially viable businesses in place of the current clubs, or axing the deadwood.

This is why Fev, Leigh & Halifax will never make it in SL - there's simply no way they can draw the fans to make themselves commercially viable at the top level.

The likes of Widnes, Salford & Huddersfield - all of whom draw small crowds for the size of places they represent - need to buck their ideas up. Insulating them from competition by holding back everyone else won't do them any favours.

As for Wakey & Cas, a merger is the only way forward. You can't split a borough of 300,000 between two clubs and expect them both to succeed.

the low points against is pleasing regardless of opposition

when we gave away soft points or played bad at easter we never used to say it was the quality of the opposition

I think that is one thing, also another area where JJB has been highlighted for......penalties. I don't know the numbers but I think we've more disciplined than we were a couple of years ago and not giving teams easy yards. Also gaining more metres forward, Peacock a large part of that obviously wasn't at his best in 2011/12 and the backs are all making huge chunks there too which is resulting in making the opposition start further away from our line.

One part that has drastically improved is the right hand side. Two years ago BJB/Watkins/Sinfield looked like strangers when defending that edge and you always felt teams could get 2/3 tries at least on that side.....that's the side Wire took advantage of in the 2012 Cup Final in those 10 minutes to take the game away from us.

Not said either of those quotes, but whatever I can see you're on a mission here coming up.



Yes facilities are poor at some grounds, but we're also no longer visiting Wilderspool, Knowsley Road, The Boulevard and The Willows nowadays.



Who said I cannot see that? Did I say the game was amazing and in great health?

No, I questioned why someone who gets seemingly no satisfaction from the sport spends so much of his time talking/posting/keeping up with news about it. I don't like RU or horse racing or tennis so I don't spend my time keeping abreast of what's going on. If a tv series I've previously watched has become bad or stale I'll stop spending my time watching it and not criticise others on a repetitive basis who still tune in.

So congratulations on reading what I put and going off on a different tangent and completely making up that I think the game is in fantastic shape and I've buried my head in sand. Stevie Wonder indeed.

Its quite possible to be concerned over the game that you have followed all of your life and so to air those views in public.

Problem is, some just don't want to listen or have no response so prefer the fingers in the ear and hum loudly approach.

I concur. I love the game but fear for its future in this country under its present format. There are fewer and fewer games that are becoming unpredictable. The likes of London, Wakefield and Bradford in their present state make a mockery of the game. For MCDermott to state any of these opposition gave us a tough time is propaganda at its worse. ..

Leeds can be safe in the knowledge at the season's start that they will finish in the top 5 whatever 16 MCDermott selects.

The state of our game is a worry and Bill Eve (Believe) with others make some valid points. What is clear is ditching promotion and relegation and introducing the franchise system has not enabled the lower clubs to invest in player development as was promised. The lack of enough young talent with true class and the drought from downunder has given us a real problem and unless we increase the salary cap to prevent the talent drain to Union and the NRL the future in not bright as our deteriorating product will attract less and less sponsorship which is much needed.

Lets hope the new reorganisation of SL brings some joy.

Having just watched Leeds Carnegie v Rotherham I have to say the Union second level looks in much better shape than the League one. Also James Lowes looks to be doing a good job.