Move all the best players to one club and they will become worse players. They will be playing less demanding games of reduced intensity each week resulting in them becoming worse players.

But who cares as long as they are playing for Leeds and winning

I would hate to sound like League Freak but the quality of the average game in Super League this season has been awful compared to the NRL. It is far less a case of the other sides improving but Saints and especially Leeds slipping backwards towards the pack. What is worrying is that these two clubs earned their success mostly through British players. For the longer term future of the game we need clubs that develop their own players to come to the fore. Hopefully things will improve and it is only a temporary down turn but it is a bad sign for the game when a team with a minimal youth development policy and crowded with imports from the lower reaches of the NRL is in the top 2.

Or is it the other clubs that are playing better defencively ?

Comparing matches let alone different competitions on different continents or even different years is impossible , no game is the same , the game changes every year as different coaches focus on different aspects of the game

You seem to have a problem with HKR's junior development ?

They are only in their 4 th year in SL , have alook how their academy and reserve teams are doing in their competitions compared to Leeds this year ?

Junior development doesn't happen overnight , it took leeds the best part of 6/7 years from when Dean Bell got it sorted till they started to produce their own quality SL players

Hull KR have improved year on year, Huddersfield and Castleford are better this year than they were last. Just because the same old teams aren't running away with it at the top does not mean the standard is worse.

Perhaps the problem is that Leeds and Saints, Wigan and Bradford have had it too easy for too long and they are now struggling to adapt to a more balanced league where standards across the board are getting better. No more easy games. Perhaps some of those clubs are ill equipped to deal with the exciting new era that the RFL has ushered in...

It's funny how the obvious conclusion to draw between Saints and Leeds both struggling a bit more this season is that they've gone backwards (with pretty much the same players) rather than other teams having strengthened.

Seems to me that the opposite is evident - would, for example, Brett Hodgson have signed for Huddersfield if there was no salary cap?

Which is why we have a system in place (the salary cap) that only rewards teams who produce quality players. There isn't any other way to success.

licensing did...

you mean like hull kr?

not really! If a club can't afford to spend £1.6m it can't afford to spend £1.6m licensing or not. Yet the sc does nothing to stop you spending £1.6m even if you can't afford it, therefore it doesn't stop you spending more than you can afford

yes hudds would,

But saints and leeds are worse both are a forward light and both without a recognized centre, both things they had last year