It’s funny, I’ve been rabbiting on about the quality of super league for years, and how saints were basically winning it almost by default on account of being the only top club who wasn’t a total basket case (just look, look at the absolute state of some of the Leeds and Wigan teams over the past 5 years). Suddenly, now saints are no longer top dogs it’s well, look at the state of super league. I get it. When Leeds were top dogs the competition was stronger than ever in my eyes.

Agree, the game wont surive with 4 or 5 clubs with wealthy backers playing each other in repeated loop games. Scottish football is also on a long decline largely due to repetitve fixtures.

I didnt mind the Catalan-Saints game too much as I like an arm wrestle game but agree it wasnt a patch on the quality of years past. SKYs coverage was their weakest for a while, the cameraman looked like he'd been on the french vino, interviews cut off sharpky etc. I know its not easy to do a broadcast from France at a weeks notice but theyd have pulled it off better if it was football.

Struggling to think of a more monotonous GF than this year.
Definition of 5 drives and a kick

Nothing changes. Everything stays the same.

Status Quo

Absolutely dreadful. A family member said "ooh I bet that was gripping" when I sent them the score. About as gripping as olive oil on a waterslide.

Wigoons very much deserved the win but it was a very poor game and could be one of the worse Grand Finals so far. It will be a struggle to give us a 5 mins of match highlights.

We can talk about funding, league structure, salary caps, or whatever, but the best (and easiest) thing the game here can do to improve itself is to fix the ruck and the play the ball. Honestly, the wrestling and constant slowing the game down is killing the spectacle.
Refs think being lenient and 'letting the game flow' is the way to go, but it clearly isn't working. They introduced the 6 again to speed the game up, but they never use it.

There's no happy medium with ruck speed. I can remember threads on here 15-20 years ago bemoaning the scootathon nature of games. If you had a hooker who was quick out of play the ball you could march up the field really quickly and easily and people would complain that we weren't getting to see any classy halfback play, no structured attacks to overcome well set defenses.

Fast forward to today and it's the opposite. Dummy half scoots are far less common, and most of the game is attackers running at a set defensive line that is well organised and difficult to get past

The 2008 world cup was the turning point. The consensus was that the speed of the ruck in SL resulted in England not being able to handle the wrestling tactics of the southern hemisphere teams. Of course, having the likes of Paul Sykes, Lee Smith and Rob Purdham in the starting line up had nothing to do with it
Despite the wrestling, the NRL seem to have got the balance right, but it seems we're not even trying to improve it over here.

The truth is there is no best season ever. Can only really talk in eras. The first decade or so of super league was the best IMO, in terms entertainment, quality of play, there were more good imports then, and the individual quality of British players was exceptional. Think Farrell, Sculthorpe, Cunningham, Harris, Robinson etc. I’m not talking how England did internationally, or comparisons with the far superior Aussie game, I just mean for fans of super league as its own entity, that was the best IMO. There was also a sense of optimism, that things were growing, getting better, developing.

In general, it’s so so stale now. IMO. Everything is so non-descript, this years grand final a prime example.

Prob not best ever as not enough real stars in the game at the moment but best for many years. Pity about the GF… one try and very systematic play from both teams thought when Cats could beat Wigan in the grind they would have played more expansively, think the 2 sun bins and the tough semi final took a way the extra energy they needed at the end. Didn’t reflect the unpredictable and dynamic rugby we have had all season.

What a daft question. I'd say it's been the worst. Two decent teams in Wigan and Catalan the rest are crap. SL is probably at the lowest it's ever been standard wise.

I'd say it's been better than the last few seasons

Aye it wasn't the best was it? Like two battered and tired teams. When you look at the NRL GF you could weep. Like different sports. Mind you there were no Nathan Cleary's or Adam Reynolds' on the field either. It is what it is!