Quote: BuckleyStreetWire "Not brainless, it's a sad reality check for the state of our game. Hopefully the new structure can do something about it from next year.
In the Wigan v Wire game last week, Wigan had six and Wire eight players missing from last year's Grand Final and neither strengthened like-for-like (nowhere near it, in fact!) yet we both looked the best two teams in the Play-offs last week by some distance. Saints have had injuries for all of the second half of the season as well. I've not seen Saints play well for months. By rights, we shouldn't be the three highest ranked teams left at the end of the season. What the love has everyone else been doing?
Alright Leeds won the Challenge Cup in great scenes at Wembley, but they have been awful in Super League and they strengthened well last Winter; Huddersfield too strenghtened an already League Leaders Shield winning side last Winter...what the love did they both do? Wire Wigan and Saints lose Briers Morley Hodgson Carvell Cooper (also missing our captain Westwood and influential Grix throughout the whole play-offs) Tomkins Richards Hansen Mossop Lomax Wilkin Walsh Wheeler...Leeds and Huddersfield strengthen and are nowhere to be seen.
In the NRL if teams like Sydney and Souths lost as many players leaving the club as Wire and Wigan, and Manly lost as many players to injury as Saints, they wouldn't even make the 8! Yet in SL we're remained the top three ranked sides come the end of the season.
How the hell can a team with no half backs and no full back win the whole competition?
As I say, a sad reality check for the state of our game!'"
And it's also a preposterous over-simplification. Saints were a very good side for part of this season, so too, Wigan, and Wire had a golden spell in the middle. The League rewards play over 27 rounds, allowing for ups and downs in form. I really hate in when people resort to knocking what is still an exciting sport by any standards. Compare it to the bore-fest and annual procession of London, Manchester and Liverpool in another well-known game.
