Is part of the problem also the really small squads most teams now have?

Every side probably has 10 players who are impossible to drop, and when injuries bite almost every player becomes undroppable. Star players have always been excused for the odd off day, but now average Joes get picked every week because they're contracted and the gap from U19 is just too large to bring any but the best into the first team. Given our first team squad is supposed to be about 25 players, over half of the squad would get picked every week if everyone is fit even if playing well below their best.

I don't agree - unless you want to the game to be played by robots who never make a mistake, it's unreasonable to expect everything to be executed perfectly; players make basic errors for all sorts of reasons, many of which are intrinsic to sport - fatigue, pressure, nerves etc.

And even if it was the case, improving basic skills has no impact at all on whether we should stamp out cheating.

And we are hemorrhaging our good players like never before. At one time 10-15 years ago we pretty much had Adrian Morley playing over in the NRL and that was it. Now it's a good dozen and more. Imagine if just James Graham was over there and all the others were back here with varied clubs... as well as being able to entice a few decent Aussies/Kiwis rather only being able to grab ones who've been banned or not wanted through poor behaviour... our competition would be miles better!

and that all stems down the the - nearly a quarter of a century out of date - Salary Cap

Have you watched the NRL this season? the amount of moaning about 2 refs is amazing, as well as the constant slagging off of the Bunker. Just in the playoffs down under there's been 10's of 1000's of dollars in fines been dished out, over Coaches slagging off the refs. Even Bill Harrigan, the inventor of the dual-referee model, says it's time to revert back to one ref. He says he's observed this season that inconsistency with policing the 10 metres & interference by the pocket ref at the ruck has become unacceptable. With dummy-halves forced to push them out of the way and throw passes over their ducking heads. The England Coach Wayne Bennett has also been saying similar for sometime. My relatives down under hate it tbh and when we talk about RL, it's one of the first things that they bring up.
I also watched one of their RL shows on Fox online the other day and they were saying the NRL were thinking off going back to one ref and scrapping the Bunker, whether they do who knows. It was also interesting listening to them go on about all the issues in the NRL atm (wish I could remember which it was to watch it again), which in many cases mirrored ours, including unbelievebly money issues.

On the subject of both leagues playing one-out wrestle tactic borefests - I think it's mainly been a symptom of what the succesful teams do works, then others copy them. Hopefully Cas go on and win the GF, playing their same brand of RL. Then hopefully it has the knock on affect & all other teams will see that's now the way to go & start to try to copy that style of expansive RL play. I think it's what my team Trinity has tried to do this year (although obviously not as good as Cas at it). Chester has seen what Powell has done while at Cas and in some ways has tried to emulate it and it's worked for us & made us generally a really decent team to watch.

Also don't get me started on players milking penalties, pleading with the refs on and off the floor, throwing themsleves on the ground, while supposedly trying to get up and slinging the ball at the oppo who are offside. It needs the refs to stamp it out at the start of the year. They've all been watching too much football and when that started in football , it turned plenty of diehard fans off, me included.

As for speeding the PTB up, do things like get the refs to shout hold quicker, when a player isn't going any further forward, isntead of waiting till a 3rd or 4th man comes in and takes the player to the floor. You see that all the time and it just wastes time and slows the game down, If we really want to sppeed the game up, simply get the refs to be harsh on holding down, wrestling & trying to get the attacker on his back by any means etc. The RFL could even put out a directive saying this is how they want the game played at the start of the season, so everyone knows where they stand & that they're gonna get penalised. Alright you'll always get players at the start seeing how far they can push things & it might take a few games of silly amounts of penalties but the players will soon learn. It will obviously need the Coaches to buy into all this and use the off season to train and set structures to play this way.

The biggest downfall of Rugby League isn't the on-field product, it's off-field. The sport is extremely poorly marketed with what seems like almost no cohesive strategy. We're currently sponsored by mushy peas for crying out loud!

Football, Rugby Union, horse racing, darts, snooker, tennis, F1, boxing, golf etc have all got it figured out, it's not just about the sport for the majority, it's about the experience of attending the event. Rugby League in the most part is about watching a game, even our biggest games are just bigger versions of watching a game, they're not an event.

Until we have some serious marketing done in a cohesive way, we will continue to stagnate as a sport at the top level, which will have (and is having) a detrimental effect on the grass roots of the sport

bang on the money both this post and the quoted one. RL is becoming very boring.....

I used to have Sky sports, ditched that and went down the "free" route via a well known app - even with free RL from both NRL & SL I watch non now and I'm a die hard RL fan - SL games just don't appeal to me or my friends anymore, the excitement has gone, as pointed out, it started with Nathan Brown and Maguire and Wrestlemania and continues to this day boring boring boring percentage rugby.

I may watch the MPG and GF in the coming weeks and will certainly tune in for the WC but normal league and cup games - not any more too boring!

If you're a diehard RL fan, why do you steal it and deprive the sport of income?

I suspect the appeal and excitement has gone from watching televised RL for you and your friends because your team no longer appears in any of the televised games. It's hard to get excited about a neutral game

Call the cops......

Can you guarantee that my extra £30 a month or whatever it is would go directly to RL benefit? Maybe I now spend that money on the Amateur game/clubs because I get better value for it....

Being a fan does not mean you have to be fleeced by the likes of Sky to prop up their Football coverage - alternatives are there.

Please don't preach at me, you will be falling foul of the law somewhere/somehow just like everyone else......

Don't think he is preaching at all. It's just kinda funny seeing someone call themselve a die hard while at the same time bragging that they watch for free.

Also one could argue if more people watch via illegal means, ratings go down and that's reflective on next TV deal so yeah it does impact the sport

So anyone, by your reckoning, without Sky sports is not a die hard fan???

Maybe if ratings go down, Sky PLC will look into the reasons and adjust their offerings to suit and try win these people back..... its about time affordable pay per view was available for all games and let the consumer have the choice.

I've said for years ppv @ between £3-6/game would be excellent. Yes people may cancel subscriptions but people who can't afford or refuse to pay for sky for just rugby league will balance the books.

Hey why not go the full hog and copy the NBA model and have season passes, access to archive footage etc, maybe even an app too!! We are so behind the times!!!!!!!!!!

There is not a chance the RFL could handle something like that.

You can buy a game on sky for £6 so it's already available. But no doubt there will be another reason to justify watching for free.

If you are going to watch for free just say it like it is. You do it because it's easy and it had little down side on you. It's not for any moral crusade to alter a TV companies pricing model or for the betterment of rugby league.