I think your spot on. Think this is particulary evident why we have no centres, the ones who get noticed are the big strong ones at U16's who run through people. Not the ones who pt their wingers in a gap.

The likes of Deacon, Sinfield etc probably wouldn't get scouted now. They won't the strongest, fatsest in the world, but they organsied and were superb passers and kickers.

The reality is Hanley is right and we are a long way behind the NRL and the reasons are quite obvious.

1. Rugby League in NSW and Queensland is thier national sport.

2. At Junior level most of our kids are interested in Wendyball rather than RL and so not enough kids iniitally get to play play RL thereby reducing the amount of talent available from the very beginning.

3. Investment and money in junior rugby is nothing like it is down under and simply the bigger volume of kids playing makes it more of chance for clubs to identify young players with quality and good skills which they can then hone and develop.

4. From a coaching perspective not enough emphasis is placed on passing ability in the UK. Lets be honest even some of our professional players at times don't pass the ball particularly well and many playing skills are undeveloped.

5. Far too many average overseas players in SL not giving UK players a chance.

6. Economic power. The game is awash with money in Australia whilst we struggle to find a decent sponsorship and only end up with a few players pictures stuck on the back of a Stobart Wagon.

7. Culture. The Aussie culture is more about playing sport, our culture is about watching it.

8. The weather is another major factor where its aids better player development and opportunites to train and improve fitness.

It might be worth pointing out that Deacon was a try scoring machine when he was younger.

People hark back to the 90's as when we where nearly good enough. That was mainly down to RU imports. Maybe the answer lies in the RFL signing up the 10 best Union backs from the home nations like we did in the 90's? Davies, Tait, Gibbs, Devereaux, Offiah to name a few.

Other reality is the funding into the game in Australia since that time has gone up massively whilst in the UK it hasn't.

Hanley should count himself lucky he was playing at a time when everything was in GB's favour and he could at least lose by just a few!

It's very simple...

It's down to each countries social make-up.

Sport and NRL in particular is ingrained into the National psyche. It has vast amounts of money thrown at it, huge exposure, along with solid development from grass roots level. Facilities, even for amateur Clubs are of a high standard and kids actually want to grow-up being RL stars. Ability is nurtured from a young age.

Compare it with our set-up over here...

RL is way down the pecking-order, it has problems breaking out of it's Regional base, tiny amounts of money invested in comparison. A stuttered grass roots system, poor facilities in a lot of areas. Smaller player pool to develop from, and our RL is run by sub-standard individuals.

On the face of it, we are doing well to even compete.

All the nonsense of dropping to 10 team leagues etc will do nothing. RL needs sound investment, better exposure, and quality development.

This.

For me, we should forget the Aussies for the next decade and concentrate on getting the UK grassroots and amateur game working towards a significantly higher and more consistent standard of coaching and administration; with a national coaching curriculum, some proper oversight of the people delivering that coaching and a requirement on SL clubs to form meaningful partnerships with their local amateur clubs, we might just arrive at a point where youngsters are developed in such a way that they'll acquire the skills and athletic ability to make it as RL players.

JB and The Butcher have it nailed.

I would also love to see some Assistant coaches or some junior managers taking a year to two to go to Aus and learn how to do it. Not enough of our coaches have the nouse and ability that Aus coaches have. To be able to follow them around and learn their ways from experts down under would benefit the set up over here massively. A win at all costs attitude is great but its by using the wrong tactics and techniques. Its like watching Stoke play Barcelona at football at times when we play Australia.

Im 21 now and i don't expect to see England beat Australia in a competitive final for as long as ill watch RL.

We desperately need to improve RL at grassroots level, both in terms of skill levels and participation/enjoyment levels. At the moment we have the worst of all worlds where we don't get that many kids taking part and we don't coach the kids we do have well enough. The passing & handling skills in particular are very poor. Mainly due, in my opinion, to the "pass it to the big kid" tactic and the emphasis on winning at too many amateur clubs.
I'd like to see much stricter enforcement and punishment of clubs and coaches (for Christs sake there was an u10's game abandoned for fighting a few weeks ago) by the leagues and the RFL.

I'd like to see a league schedule where clubs only play every other week and so can have extra training sessions that don't need to be focused on the upcoming game.

Obviously a much larger emphasis on passing both in training and in games. Maybe bring in a system we used to have in the schools league I played in as a kid, where tries involving a certain number of passes scored more points.

A change to smaller teams on much smaller pitches.

A mandatory touch competition for all clubs.

Whether all those things would work I don't know, but I think it would help to encourage greater passing & handling, less physical contact, and less of the big lad running through or around the defence. So hopefully would improve both skill levels and enable the game to be enjoyed by more kids than it currently is.

..even to France at home.

I don't really buy into this beating the Aussies and the world will be our Oyster scenario so many people push.

The Union team beat them reguarly, have won their world cup recently, and they still don't get bigger crowds than us in their club game

No one thinks outside of RL, Australia! The best Rugby League playing nation in the world, if the English RL can beat them, I'll go watch them. They think, Home and away, and Bondi each and the Opera house.

We need to get a proper long term plan together, and stop trying to beat the Aussies every year, that plan must however include a way of getting English players into the NRL more.

SL needs to make itself the best all round competition it can be, week in week out and we need to simply keep a consistant international game year in year out, following the RU setup and trying to find a "Home" for RL where year in year out international are played so people get used to the format and location of international games.

And a stable club game in the same manner. Chopping and changing is confusing for the already watchung never mind new followers.

It's been an eye opener seeing the development of our U18's SG Ball team in Perth that plays in the Sydney SG Ball comp. These kids train 4 times a week and then have to travel the equivalent of a yorkshire team playing in Moscow every other week. Many of them are still at school. The professionalism and training regime they undergo at 16&17 is amazing. The budget for our one U18's team is in the region of 300,000 pounds!

When I compare that to the U18's team I played in when I was a kid in Hull the whole situation is worlds apart.

Presuming your team isn`t one of them to go?
Wonder what your thoughts would be if you followed London?

There are so many mediocre clubs which don't contribute to the national side: Widnes, Wakey, London,, Hull KR which is why RL would benefit from 2 'super leagues' with promotion and relegation

There's only 18 places up for grabs in the national side, how do you expect every team to contribute? Look back through history and see what Wakey, HKR, Widnes contributed to the GB sides in years gone by and stop making stupid statements. The more clubs = the more players getting opportunity to be FT and make a career out of the game = more chance of stars being unearthed.