Well, it would do, if they played more games...

This "doesn't matter so much if they play abroad, it'll improve our international side" argument is all very well if you're talking about the Croatian (say) football side, because football has a credible international game. We just don't, and are a long way from getting one, even on optimistic scenarios.

The majority of the English players will return to SL at some point as well. They'll come back better players.

But it is concerning that we are becoming a feeder league. The World Club Series could have been a great concept.

I can see the top few SL clubs breaking away in the next 10 years and becoming a group of the NRL in a World League. It's the only way they'll be able to compete for players and money.

A better scenario would be 6 new geographically based clubs playing in a ' World NRL ' with existing clubs reverting back to either winter or a british championship

But shortsighted fans wouldn't accept that

We're not becoming a feeder league though. Sure, the best players such as Burgess and Graham may get spots in the NRL but it says a lot if we are producing the best players in their positions, why can't the much vaunted NRL produce good enough players of their own?

Is the Premier League a feeder for the Spanish league? Hardly, yet "the best" players leave clubs to go to Barca or Madrid.

So Aussie players not coming over is causing a drop in standard ?

If this were the case, ho come we haven't beaten the Aussies in a test series for quite so long.
Back in the glory days, when Wigan (and others) were signing overseas players at the top of their game, we still couldn't beat them and nobody was bemoaning the drop in quality down under. In fact, by having the British game "nurturing" so many overseas players, they just got stronger and stronger.

With the current situation, where we have a decent (probably a record number) of British players at top NRL clubs, we may actually have a chance of finally beating them in a meaningful test series, which would be a huge boost for the game over here.

Everyone is talking about a lack in quality over here but, just because Leeds and Saints are struggling doesn't mean the game is going down the pan,.it just gives their fans something else to moan about.

If Cas were playing under the Leeds name, everyone would be raving about their fast open style of rugby and Hull seem to be doing what Wigan have done, by bullying other teams with a power game plus, having some quality to score plenty.

Although we may not have one of the "big four" dominating the comp, this season is THE most open competition in years, the very thing that SL has craved since it's inception.

It would be a brave man that predicted the 4 clubs that will make the play offs and although Leeds and Huddersfield appear to be battling it out for the wooden spoon, there is no certainty in this and nobody would have place that wager at the beginning of the season.

Just because "your" club is struggling, it doesn't make the whole comp low grade or poor quality.

There have been plenty of great games, plenty of upsets and uncertainty over who will win the big prize, which seems like a decent situation.

What we have is a low quality unpredictable and entertaining super league, the "big four" have just been replaced with another 4 clubs in Hull, Warrington, Wigan and the Catalans. As for Wigan remaining in the "big four" most Wigan fans will tell you that their team performances are poor this season and are just doing enough in some games to grind out wins.

Defences are atrocious this year this is showing up in the league table with so many teams on negative points difference contributed by an enormous amount of 50+ points games, injuries are playing a large part in reducing player quality this year as clubs have to dip into weakened squads of players. The salary cap restriction is not helping either not many clubs are risking a small squad of quality players and opting for larger squad depth.

There will always be huge margins in the points differences of the clubs at the top of the league, compared to those at the bottom.
The real story of the season and perhaps the main reason for threads like this, is the performance of Leeds Rhinos.
If they had carried on, where they left off last season, we wouldn't have this thread but, they have flopped quite spectacularly.
Saints, under Cunningham are just not firing.
Their squad, on paper looks very good indeed but, Cunningham just hasn't been able to get them to preform as a team.
If you look at Cas and to a lesser extent, Wakefield, they have a coach, who has his team performing way ahead of expectations and Powell is getting close to the maximum possible from his squad.
Cunningham, Anderson, McDermott are getting nowhere near the max from their respective squad's and this has people saying the quality of SL is dropping, it simply isn't the case.
Instead, we have 3 or 4 of the top clubs who are being very patient (rightly so) with under achieving coaches.

With the current structure, although there is the potential of a Championship club gaining promotion, this is less likely to happen with Leeds and Huddersfield included in the Middle 8's but, it will certainly add some interest, when the games come around.

Warrington playing crap on the magic weekend may be a blessing in disguise.

When our bar is part-time RL or a bit part league like the eredivise the game is already lost. The game is managing it's own decline and has managed to convince a certain section of the fan base that this is not only unavoidable but acceptable

You are stating that the decline of Dutch football from the 70s to now is something we should aim for. We aren't even hoping to stand still anymore

Wakefield are making more errors and conceding more penalties this season than 10 years ago.

Agreed.
With our sport being so far behind NRL and Union, in terms of revenue, a small increase in the cap wont do very much at all.
Having said that, the RL PR machine is totally non existent and it's important that we at least put what we have into the public eye.
We are far too insular as a sport and although the tag line "rugby league, the greatest game......." is positive, the only people that see this are current RL fans.
Sky, despite being the sports main sponsor, do very little to help and as far as the national media is concerned, we don't exist.

Well I'm a Cas fan and have said for two years that the standard of SL has fallen. Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying the brand of rugby we play; I expect to be entertained and I am, but take away my club allegiance and is blatantly obvious that the standard has dropped. Yes, we've got better and others have got worse, but you only have to look at how poor saints and Wigan (and let's be honest; they're awful) and the fact they are still competing in the league highlights how poor the overall standard has become.

No, l'm saying we have to adapt to circumstances and be realistic. As we and other competitions have had to for many decades.

We can flap about, moaning on about how somebody, for some reason, probably incompetence, has failed to find millions of pounds in extra revenue, without giving more than the vaguest or most unrealistic indication as to where it might be found. Or we can accept the reality that the gap to the NRL is currently unbridgeable and develop a model that works for us as well as possible.

Which isn't to say that we shouldn't strive to be successful, just that our potential for revenue generation is significantly lower than the NRL's, for a whole host of reasons, most of which are not the RFL's fault.