Whilst I don't agree with its entirety with your first point, thank you for confirming mine by saying it. Not all clubs have these poor coaches you talk of, some are very very good indeed. Some of the clubs are absolute first class run clubs. I can only speak for West Yorkshire clubs, and in particular the ones Leeds play a big part in and help develop. Hence on that basis you see the issue with the biggest club missing from the game, what damage that would do. How many other clubs do the equivalent of the butlins weekend just done?

The numbers of kids might well be dwindling, but that is a direct result of how poor the competition is now, and has been for the last five years, getting worse and worse each. The stupidity of bringing down the top clubs to the level of the bottom ones was absolute commerical suicide. The state of our officials in the game now, is an absolute joke to watch, they are absolute pathetic and should not be on a permanent job role at the level they are producing.

Yes I watched the summer bash, and I enjoyed quite a few of the games. In particular I thought the reffing performances in three of the games was excellent, which I never seem to get to say in super league anymore. So why are these guys ignored? I have seen that fella Grant now twice this season on TV, once in Super League in a Catalans game, and once at the weekend, I have also seen him live at a Featherstone match, and on each occassion the guy has been very impressive and puts Super League officials to shame. Yet all I ever see on the TV is Chris Kendell, who to be frank must be the worst official ever. Is there any wonder people are turning off the game?

You are wrong on the last bit. I don't agree with Hetherington for last few years, and think he has played a part in holding super league back, however, everything he has done has been based on the game as a whole rather than just super league, which is what other clubs have done the oppossite on. The fact is that without Leeds, Super League will suffer, and as a result so too will the rest of the game, because without that top level income then the bottom level will not benefit from the club.

There was a video on the NRL page on FB a few weeks back of Cronk doing similar in the changing room. It's about being grounded and having the right principles. Setting good examples for the younger lads.

The reasons for RLs apparent decline, and it's not a universally negative outlook, are many.

I do think the standard of SL has dropped, partly yes because of "lowest common denominator" syndrome - but we also have a fair bit of talent in Aus, whereas in the old days it was the other way round. We also play too many fixtures, caught in a negatively-reinforcing cycle.

To me, RL can't afford the well-supported and high profile clubs NOT to be in the top flight, and for that reason I was an am a fan of a licensing system rather than P&R. The devil is in the detail of how you do it. As with most things in RL, we don't stick with anything long enough because we have inconsistent leadership and the game is under constant financial pressure.

There are socio-economic reasons why the game in this country struggles too.

Anyone who thinks that Leeds Rhinos playing in the Championship is going to be good for RL needs bumps feeling I'm afraid. Not cataclysmic maybe, but certainly not a good thing. There is no guarantee Leeds would bounce back up either, were the worst to happen.

You see how happy Hull, Cas, Wakefield et al will be when the 3-4k Leeds fans are replaced by a taxi full of Toronto fans, and maybe the Sky money goes down in due course... What we need, clearly, are fewer and higher quality teams player fewer and higher quality fixtures, not the opposite.

We need the whole standard up- not just 14 top teams and ignore the rest. It would be like having a class full of 30 kids, putting all your effort into the most intelligent 5, and expecting the other 25 to improve. You dont improve the whole standard by only focussing on the top.

Good post and spot on.

Given the recent relationship berween GH and the other SL clubs, I'd be very surprised to see the likes of McManus or Lenaghan banging a drum to keep Leeds in SL if they finish bottom. of course it might get expanded next year but I don't reckon anyone will be out to do us special favours and nor should we expect any.

I'm not sure whether SL has got much weaker since I hardly watch it but I think the spectacle will improve once the new refereeing interpretations around the play the ball bed in.

The NRL seem very keen on recruiting players from SL so we must be producing quality. So maybe things aren't as bad as some people think?

I think when your team are on a downer it's easy to exaggerate.

Well this is southstander after all.

Being “on a downer” is what we do and why we’re successful.

The only way you could justify not relegating the bottom club this year is to expand the competition.

You can’t tell Toronto or Toulouse/Fev etc that they’re not coming up after they’ve spent money to do just that.

This is 100% true, SL has improved up until about 6 / 7 years ago, and since then we have started/have gone backwards. Its all down to the SL higher management and their abject failure to market the game correctly. They should be ashamed of their pot poor performance, a total disgrace. They are so hell bent of trying to expand it in Canada and the US as well as in Europe that they have let down the UK badly. SL will die if Sky pull the plug. We have a salary cap that is unfit for purpose, a cap of £2m, the same as what SKY give each SL team, no wonder the game is going backwards all the cap does is reduce the game down to the worse team in the league, the lowest denominator so to speak, we end up with the cream of the crap. The only way forward is to take the marketing away from SL, allow teams to market themselves and raise the salary cap immediately to £5m. If a team can afford £5m to spend on players then great we can then sign top quality players where fans will pay to watch these players, it will also attract more youngsters into the game and the quality of the game will be better. Money attracts money, its a risk but a well judged risk, Sky will then have to cough up more money for their TV rights. Without changes and trying to even the game across SL its turning away the fans and turning away natural talent. The purse strings must be cut and clubs allowed to spend more on players etc.
Only teams who rely on SKY money alone will fall by the wayside, each club has to take on their own responsibility. Cow sheds are that are called grounds need to be flattened.
Get rid of this stupid salary cap.

Getting rid of the cap should be the last thing the game does. The clubs would massively overspend if we did.

How would getting rid of the cap improve player development?

We need a different cap that yes rises steadily over time but that also forces spending on certain areas including player development.