You've saved me the trouble. All four MOS candidates and the previously-cited examples of Graham and the Burgesses illustrate this perfectly.

With promotion and relegation back on the agenda, clubs in the lower half of SL will revert to "tried and tested" average journeyman pro's, instead of developing their own juniors.
The bigger clubs like Wigan, Saints and Leeds have the luxury of knowing that they will finish in the top 8 and therefore they can carry on drip feeding their youngsters into their respective squads.

Although the franchise/ licensing idea didn't work properly, the junior development was probably the biggest plus and junior development will decline, with the return of promotion and relegation.

Powell is likely to get the #6 shirt for next year. Wane has also stated Hampshire will get game time at #1 and #6 with him likely to get the #1 shirt for 2016 when Bowen retires.

Tony Myler played at a time when there was a lot more time and space for attacking players. As did John Holmes, John Woods, Andy Greg etc etc.

Developing halfbacks of real quality is much harder today than it was, and other skills - notably kicking and strong defence - are valued as much if not more than passing ability. As an example, much as I admire their tenacity, Hodkinson and Reynolds are nowhere near the standard of ball handlers you'd expect from the NSW incumbent halfbacks. Pearce and Maloney ditto (although Pearce could still surprise). Even Cooper Cronk is not really fun to watch - does his job fantastically well but such a regimented player.

In fact in a decade I suspect that only Thurston from the current crop of halfbacks will be seen as even approaching greatness (DCE seems to have really stalled this year - he could kick on again though).

You might be correct in what you say but! I think the reason league has not grown is that the fans here are not entertained with the arm wrestle? wining the ruck? & the need to speed up the game? or any other trendy catch phrase that gets trotted out. What realy lifts crowds is that bit of magic, off the cuff unscripted gamble. We soon forget the solid defence the safe full back. What we remember is the droped shoulder flatfooting the defender & the weaving run through half the opposing team to score. The reason we dont get that is that the skillfull players dont have tired forwards to run at, 10 interchanges & 4 on the bench have seen to that. The Aussies may win everything but I suspect a lot of british fans would prefer to watch the more open structured game that we used to play before the fully pro era. But you can't put the genie back in the bottle.

Even in Australia they struggle to produce real great centres. Centres need to have the physical attributes of a top class second row forward with the handling skills of a half back. Watkins is the nearest we have produced since Keith Senior - pity he is coached by Brian McDermott and not Tony Smith.

Interesting in that they used to play in the days when defences were only back 5 metres.

The fact is that English players these days don't get the opportunity because of the obsession with signing overseas players.

The also played in an era where defence was nowhere near as organised as it is now and much slower - if we went back to five yards you would just have five rushes and a kick

The difference between player development here and in Australia is that they are committed to it in an holistic way, we are not.

Before being granted a franchise, a club must show they have a seamless production line of players from schools upwards, within a defined geographic area. Their development plans are tested and must be approved prior to entry to the NRL.

We just make sure that a club's not playing on a tatey field and they've got some dosh in the bank or a sugar daddy that will deposit some dosh in the bank.

Tbf they also have pokie dens spending millions on jnr clubs, a lot easier to get kids playing when rego and kit are free and facilities and coaching is excellent. One of the big leagues clubs will spend more on jnr rl than majority of SL clubs put together.

That doesn't make sense.

If there was less space (ie 5 meters instead of 10), why would this lead to more of a "power" game.
I'd gamble that IF we returned to 6 yards (or 5 metres), the short kicking game would return, together with attacking with a
deeper line, although with the fitness levels that we currently have, territory would be at an absolute premium.

They don 't spend millions on junior clubs, the clubs have to fund raise like every club in the Uk. Also rego is not free, in fact if you don 't pay your rego you don 't play !!

I would like to see all junior games return to 5m.