Newsflash

The top 4 or 5 teams already beat the lower sides fairly regularly and comfortably, how many sides have won SL, the only side not to have won it that could are my own side.

Why do we always have to rip everything up and start again after the inevitable lesson dealt out by an Aussie club or international side? these threads pop up every time and it almost becomes laughable reading them. If Saints had scored them couple of tries they should have in the first half and Souths hadn't got the rub of the green on a couple of theirs and the scoreline had finished at say, 26-12 we are all sat here now saying well done Saints, gallant effort against a great team.And,Well ,Warrington should have won and Wigan only lost in overtime so its been a good weekend and we pretty much matched them.

People need to realise that the NRL as a competion is light years ahead of ours and always will be because they have so much more going for them down there. Doing away with the cap, or bringing back Yorks v Lancs or whatever else crazy ideas people come up with won't make a dent.

Its almost like comparing the Football Championship to the premier league. The Championship will never live with the Premier League in regards to Money invested, TV deals, Wages, quality of team, star names etc etc..They are light years apart like us and the NRL but it is a good, competetive competition in its own right and from time to time the championship side can beat a Premier League team.

I agree with those who say invest in the youth and put resources in getting more youngsters participating in the game. That is the way forward but unfortunately there is no quick fix here.

I know and those winning margins would be even larger if they were allowed to spend more and more.

16 years of falling wages and still some pretend it's not enough. Wigan payout less than half of what they did 16 years ago but any change will send them bust. 60% increase in funding this year but no share to the ones actually doing the work.

People seem to have somehow convinced themselves that everything will be ok as long as we don't spend on players. That the money will be diverted to youth development. Yet they don't see that the clubs spending the SC are already the ones spending on youth development only to see that investment go and earn their worth somewhere else. There is no point in pumping money in to creating a limited and valuable resource only to see that resource up and leave to your competitors.

RL is the only sport I have ever seen cheering from the sidelines it's own demise, celebrating its thrift as it gets left behind.

Tough. It's not the players responsibility to subsidise clubs playing at a higher level than they can afford.

*cough* 2006 Hull FC *cough*

We're never going to get near Saints 2006.

Maybe not, but because Hull FC got to the final, Wire are not "the only side not to have won it that could" as stated.

by trying to keep the entire super league artificially competitive, we are dragging the entire standards down to level of the lowest teams. We are finding it difficult to attract young players to even play the game in the first place as the career prospects are poor and financially un-rewarding. The simple fact is there is not enough money in the game in the UK for all clubs to make the game a viable proposition. with the ever increasing salary cap in the NRL it is more likely that those young exceptional players we do unearth in the game will be lured away by the financial rewards and lifestyle, even those who want to stay at home have the lure of the rewards of moving to Union. Unfortunately there is no easy solution as we are a minority sport in the UK, should we allow clubs who have the aspiration and finance to compete on equal terms with the NRL or Union or do we hold them back???

Do we want to be the NRL feeder league ???????

We aren't losing/not attracting young players to the game because of the wages of SL players. A 12 year old has no idea how much SL players are paid. They play the game because they enjoy it.

The reason we don't attract or lose so many young players is because:
- we only reach out and give the opportunity to play RL to a tiny proportion of these young people,
- too many don't enjoy playing RL, for a few reasons at different ages.

If we change these things then we'll see an increase in young players playing the game.

Is this not for another thread really? I think the point of the thread was about how we retain the talent we do have and hault the drain to the NRL, rather than how to increase the pool. You're both right by the way, and it is an issue, albeit a separate one.

If you took that 1million pound per club salary difference and invested it in getting more kids playing rl and better jnr structures you would find we would be much closer to,the nrl in ten years!

Perhaps if we had a salary cap for non playing staff in RL clubs including CEO's that might see the salary cap rise. At Leeds you see non rugby staff growing whilst the people who make it all happen have effectively taken an annual pay cut. The salary cap hasn't moved for 15 years. The CEO's especially the likes of Hetherington don't want the salary cap to rise - he actually would like it set at what the weakest club can afford. I doubt he would be voting for it if his own salary was controlled the same way!!

Ps the exchange rate shifting back in the pounds favour will see the player drain reduce and swing back to sl's favour.