That is why the NRL is so strong. The senior players know that if they don't perform there will be a squad full of youngsters desperate to take their shirt. We don't have that in this country as the youngster playing the game aren't of a high enough standard as the sport doesn't have a strong enough grass roots set up to catch the best athletes.'"

Daniel Anderson was interviewed on Boots'n'All this evening and he believes that the standard of SL has deteriorated since he was here, citing the increase to 14 teams as one reason. He doesn't think we have the player pool to support that number of teams.

I totally agree with him.

I don't think he said we have deteriated. He said we have not moved on - the level has stayed the same we have stagnated and fourteen teams he thinks is two too many.

Ditto.

He was trying to avoid being overly negative. He was going to say 'plummeted', but didn't want to offend anyone so changed it to stagnated. He's right, there isn't the player pool to support 14 teams with any real quality.