Quote leedsnsouths="leedsnsouths"I think the SL needs to increase the cap if we want our top teams to compete, the cap relative to inflation has gone down in recent years and the poorer teams are holding us back
Theres enough quality in SL to beat NRL teams but it gets spread out by the salary cap, if the top players all played for the 5/6 teams who could afford it then they would be as good as NRL teams
If the NRL is the premier league then we should aim at being La Liga, where the league on the whole isnt that good but the top teams in the world are in that league
It would mean a less competitive SL but the players would improve by playing superior opposition on a regular basis, leading to a better international team as well
If the international tea got better then there would be more TV money in SL and eventually the weaker teams would catch up'"
That's nonsense. Who plays for the bottom clubs in that example? A load of very poor players and there is a blowout scoreline every time a top 5/6 side plays one from below. Those clubs see their crowds go down and the cycle repeats. You end up with four or five strong clubs who get thrashed by the NRL sides as they go six between decent games, whereas the NRL sides play at a high level week in week out.
What increasing the cap would do is mean the current players getting paid more. That will not improve them as players at all. Your scenario of the best players being spread out is what we want, it's how the NRL works. There are genuinely world class players in every single side over there. JT plays for NQC who have been whipping boys for years until recently, you had Andrew Johns at Newcastle, Paul Gallen at Cronulla, Benji at Wests. Clubs in the NRL can go from bottom to top in a season with the right recruitment, coaching and a bit of luck as the quality is consistent throughout the league. In SL Wakefield couldn't go from bottom to top ever as there is such little talent about.
The problem is depth. Depth, depth, depth. We don't recruit the best athletes as a sport in this country. This country has produced it's own Greg Inglis, Billy Slaters and Paul Gallens. Instead of playing league they will be playing Sunday league football or working in McDonalds. Even if they were brought up in the heartland areas they probably wouldn't play league. One of my lads plays for a Under 11s football team in Warrington. They have two lads in that side that are just outstanding athletes, borderline-academy quality. They might eventually get scouted but they won't play professionally. Those kids shouldn't be allowed to leave primary school without being abducted by league talent scouts and coerced into playing the game. Clubs should be mining the primary schools for the athletes and those with good coordination and general skill levels and introducing them to league. Those two kids aren't playing the sport as their parents aren't into it either so they don't watch it. My lad is the smallest on his football team by about half a foot, he plays RL as well and he's the same size as 3/4 of the players as the best athletes play football. If you grew up in Chester, Manchester or 90% of the rest of the country it would probably never cross your mind to play League. With that amount of talent being wasted, it's no surprise we're so far behind.
The surge in British coaches at SL level is another concern. The main characteristic that British coaches share is that they are idiots, dumb, pigheaded idiots. When you've got Shaun Wane who doesn't have the intelligence to open a tin and KC who is three sheets to the wind coaching versus people like Wayne Bennett and Trent Robinson, it's not surprising our players don't develop.
