I'd say Eastmond would be a top player in SL, Myler might well have been though I accept we can't tell. I don't think Ashton was particularly that good.
Of course we've lost a few to the NRL, off the top of my head:
Graham
Hodgson
3x Burgess
Whitehead
Cooper

I think all those players would make SL a better competition. However I don't think it's the main factor as to why SL isn't as good as the NRL.

In my opinion we have to sort our clubs out. There's probably only about 5 or 6 clubs that are anywhere close to where they should be in terms of professionalism, structures and finances.

I've said it before on a few threads but I think we have to start becoming 1 sport rather than a collection of totally independent clubs. We need to start sharing best practice, facilities and resources.

Oh ffs !!

Or hull KR board

I wouldn't have P&R anyway but it would be things that would benefit all clubs, like Hull FC and Hull KR sharing an academy and presumably sharing academy facilities.

Cas, Wakefield and Fev could all share a state of the art training facility for instance. Or even better, a stadium. A third of the cost and much improved facilities.
That kind of thing could be replicated where relevant. Maybe with Salford, Swinton and Oldham? As would sharing best practice on off-field things like management and marketing.
Clubs joining together to boost amateur participation and quality for instance.
IIRC Kris Radlinski tried something like that (on the business side) and only a handful of clubs could be d to turn up. It's that kind of attitude we need to change in the clubs.

I'd also use incentives to get clubs to market RFL events. The Challenge Cup final for instance is only marketed through 2 of the 39 clubs. That could be changed very easily. Championship clubs can market the Magic Weekend, SL clubs can market the Big Bash etc etc.

Completely agree.

Take the club websites for instance. Each club has their own normal website with very similar content (news, teams, fixtures, results, history, etc etc, as well as a club shop site.

Instead of each club forking out £x grand to web designers, they club together to design a universal template they can each take away and use (the NRL do this).

Reasons for a poor league?

Too many fixtures that do not matter.
Too many fixtures where teams are merely going through the motions.
Summer Rugby ideology.
Lack of marketable world class star quality players (we haven't got any in Super League).
Increasingly poor standard of overseas recruits who are NRL reserve grade standard or worse.
Loss of our best and most influential players to the NRL.
Loss of our best and most influential players to RU.
Static Salary Cap that hasn't risen since 1999.
Lack of player movement between top SL clubs.
No transfer market, hence no excitement, little news, hence no publicity generated for the sport.
Reluctance of RFL and SL clubs to hold press conferences and invite sports journos along.
Only journos to get RL press passes are vetted by RFL (only uncritical 'Yes Men' from trade publications may apply).
League structures changing every five seasons, each one 'unprogressively' worse than the previous one...
... FPTP = Excellent system
... Top 5 play-off = Very Good System
... Top 6 play-off = Ok but should have stuck with Top 5
... Top 8 play-off and 14 SL clubs + franchising = Utter Crap
... 8 X 8 X 8 = Bonkers!

On top of that, there are costs associated with Super League since 1996.

Loss of proper international tours.
Kissing goodbye to Ashes Series against the Kangaroos.
Unique and marketable GB brand replaced with stupid England brand.
TV audiences ranging between 50k and 150k on Sky.
Irrelevant Sky schedule filler on Thursday evenings.
Now that Premier League fixtures are scheduled for Friday nights, SL to become even more irrelevant.
Little terrestrial TV coverage = audience losses in the millions.

The game is dying a slow death by a thousand cuts and it's all self-inflicted.

I no longer see a way back for a sport that has somehow managed to become far more irrelevant during the Super League era than it was before that.

What an achievement... NOT.

What's the cuddle club ? And who's in it ?

Hard to argue with William on the whole. I look forward to the international schedule more these days than the SL fare, and that itself is nothing like it used to be with the GB/Kangaroo tours.

Yep. Club websites, online ticketing services, online shops etc.

Someone will probably try (in vain, obviously)

I forgot to list the positives of Super League and summer rugby.

So, in the interests of balance, here goes...

England V Exiles (whoops!)
Magic Weekend (LOL)
Big Bash Weekend (Hmmmm)
Ironically, the most important fixtures are now played when weather is cold, wet and crap.

Erm... Ok, f*** it.

There aren't any positives.

Everyone always says the game is dying.

It's been slowly dying for a 100 hundred years. Before super league it was ''muddy pitches sh*t stadiums, no fans, 1 team wins everything''.

It's not that super league is good, or the game was good before super league, they were both a different kind of bad.

Exactly the responses I expected from the exceptionally thick, parochial, RL demographic who either lost the ability to think for themselves after 1996 or never possessed that ability in the first place.