It’s completely realistic that any England player could double their salary by going to the NRL. I don’t know why any of them would stay in Super League, the salary cap has risen so quickly, It’s gone from;
2006 $3.6 million
2010 $4.3 million
2014 $6.3 million
2018 $9.4 million

Not as straightforward as just about money though. It's a huge thing to move your family to the other side of the world. In McGillvery's case his young lad is at Man City's academy so wouldn't want to move him from there. Wife's and girlfriends aren't all stay at home spending the credit cards like footballers WAGS and have jobs and careers too.

indeed , money not everything, sometimes family is more important and alot that go over dont settle... joe wardle one recent case

Liam Watts turned down Newcastle Knights this year, which I believe to be not wanting to be apart from his kids

If the RFL raised the salary cap by another £1m, how many team's would struggle to raise revenue to accommodate the expenditure

Probably all but Saints, Leeds, Wigan, Warrington and possibly Hull. Which is part of our problem. One reason why SL quality isn't great is that we're placing all the responsibility for dealing with income inequality on the richer clubs to avoid spending, rather than on the poorer clubs to raise their incomes and spend more. There needs to be an increase, and it needs to be quick, because the Aussies will be looking harder at our remaining international class players now, and they've plenty of cash to wave around.

I can't believe some of the rubbish on here about Bennett. That is the first time we have competed in a must win game against them since 2003, when the Kangaroos brought probably their worst squad in 30 years to England. The reason we lost that game is that we just didn't have enough quality in 1, 6 and 7 to create tries. We've heard for years that our pack was as good/better than theirs - this time it actually was. Give England any one of Slater, Morgan and Cronk and we'd have won that.

What Bennett really changed was defence. Whilst we bemoan our lack of creativity etc, Australia, who had been scoring for fun were only able to manage one try, and for most of the second half were almost no threat at all. I have NEVER seen an England team do that to them in defence, including the times we've beaten them since 1982.

Also, re Widdopp I think its unfair to say he isn't a stand off. He was basically the only attacking playmaker and always on the right. No surprise he struggled to get killer passes away and took some dumb risks at times.

Bennett was conservative, but in the end Betts probably picked most of the fringe players like Brown, and he wouldn't have picked either Bateman in the centres or Heighington at all if he'd had clearly better options available. Does anyone seriously think if he had a left centre as good as Watkins on the right that he wouldn't have picked him? Or played someone other than Gale/Brown if they were standouts?

Personally whilst gutted for the loss, I couldn't be prouder of the effort we put in. That's the third game I've been to in Brisbane vs Australia, and the first where we looked like we belonged on the same field as them.

James Graham spoke up for Wayne Bennett at the post match interviews. That is good enough for me.

Pretty much agree with that. Hopefully Percival improves his game so that he demands selection. Either that or someone like Gildart steps up. At halfback I'm not sure what the options are really. We do need to be able to attack down both sides of the field. Widdop was good IMO but we're lacking a stand off for the left side attack.

If Sutcliffe is now to make Left Centre his own for Leeds as seems the plan, that could well be the perfect solution as he will already have struck up a good understanding with Hall.

Agreed, if he can make the step up. He, Percival and Gildart are the future in that position.

It's No 6 that's the problem area IMO.

from the England team that played in the final who wont be around in 4 years time to keep the progress going and finally win it??

o'loughlin will be too old
mcgillvary will be 33
roby
heighington
hall?
graham?

5 stars wont be there next time possibly, need the next ones to come along to keep us going upwards

I think next point of call for planning is for the Ashes 2 years away which is winnable, 4 years is a long way off.

For 2019 the only players you would certainly write off are SOL and Heighington. The hope is some of the younger lads start pushing themselves on to a higher level and force out the old guard over this four year period.

I hope he stays on and can build on what has been started. I’ve seen us beat Australia in the odd game here and there but never compete like that in a game of such significance.

I believe the difference between the two sides is SOO. The Australian squad all have experience of games of that magnitude and know how to perform. When you look at our key players in the final Widdop, Brown and Gale don’t have that experience and knowledge. We have the raw ability but certain players need to learn to perform on the big day.

I agree that many of our players lack experience of playing that level of game. Outside of the NRL they're not likely to get it either unless we start playing NZ and maybe Tonga regularly. Widdop has played plenty of NRL and it's no surprise he performed best of the three playmakers.

I hope that the next generation of halfbacks and backs get plenty of gametime for their SL sides next year (I'm thinking of the likes of Richardson, Trueman and Walker) so they ready for tests in 2-3 years. By then I hope Williams has established himself too.