And half a dozen injuries and yer fecked Jeanie.

Come off it Vasty. Whilst I accept that your optics might be slightly different, given that most Wakefield fans will agree that they've spent more than a few years watching dross, I think you're clutching at straws to argue that on the basis of Castleford and Wakefield having very good seasons, the standard of the league and the quality of the league is improving.

We're losing much of of our top talent because of our inability / unwillingness to pay them their worth, and we're replacing that lost talent with inferior players. We've lost good, young talent like the Burgess brothers, Graham, Hodgson and Whitehead to the NRL - and we haven't been able to replace them with players of equal or greater ability.

We're producing less home-grown talent than we used to, and that invariably impacts the quality that can go around.

We're not attracting the quality of overseas talent that we were 10/15 years ago - the days of recruiting box office talent of the calibure of Renouf, Barrett, Vainikolo, Albert, Gidley or Lauitiiti (in their prime) are long gone.

Feel free to argue away, but I don't think you'll convince anyone that the standard of play, that the quality of talent that we're seeing week in, week out is improving in the context of those three important factors. At the end of the day, supporters will judge the standard with their wallets and the reality is that for the last three seasons, we've been playing in front of fewer and fewer of those supporters.

You can go ahead and convince yourself that people pointing out a decline of standards are simply "fans of big clubs who don't like being roughed up by the small clubs" as much as you like, but that doesn't make it the case.

Leeds won the competition, i follow leeds, for the majority of the year they were awful to watch. How does that work? Surely id say it was a great season if that were true?

I have a very good comprehension of the game (my evidence for which ill not get into), and the standard overall was poor with the game on the whole less attractive to watch. Now this does not in any way discredit cas before they bottled it and the likes of wakefield who had great season. Its not just me, the general consensus is that the standard has dropped.

Now in your reply, try control your emotions.

To be honest, it'd take a massively deluded person to sit there and say that the standard of the league hasn't dropped in the last few season.

However, that doesn't make it any less exciting.

Leeds-wise last season was a ball compared to the one previous which I think most would agree was a far greater shock to us fans. Also, last season, there was one rather important game where we most certainly were allowed to parade around the pitch unchallenged

That said, Cas, Wakey and some of the others really played some good stuff last year. I for one hope they step up again - especially if it's at the expense of the bigger sides west of the Pennines

Saints
Wigan
Warrington
Catalans
Hull FC
Leeds
Widnes
Hull KR
Salford
Castleford
Huddersfield
Wakefield

SL - Saints
CC - Saints

Out - Wakefield
In - Toronto

Regards

King James

lol@Vastman.

Salary cap - Dumbing teams down to the level of wakefield since 1999.

The sooner the cap gets raised so moneybag teams like Leeds, Wigan, Hull, Saints and Warrington can spend spend, the sooner the standard of SL will increase. Instead we have to put up with a cap limit of peanuts so the likes of Wakefield and Huddersfield dont go bust.

Regards

King james

Shows how much you know when Huddersfield have one of the wealthiest owners in the game...

Your league prediction just shows you up for the troll you are.

Christ considering how "small" and "insignificant" Wakefield are, Printer talks about them more on here than Vastman.

Amazing when you consider we don't spend up to the cap or have any marquee players - yet another really poor effort old love.

What a patronising git - there was some great RL played last season - sorry it wasn't you who was playing it but then we don't all watch the game through your myopic vision. What Wakefield's previous 'dross' seasons as you put have to do with it god only know.

I detest Cas but they played the best most open RL I have ever seen in SL last year, sorry if that twangs at your insecurities but it was simply better than anything I have seen previously in SL - live with it the world is not exclusively Leeds based, the fact that you so doesn't make it so (double patronise).

A general "consensus" amongst whom? Nothing to do with emotion seriously man get a grip it's the way you're suggesting you represent the "consensus". Now as someone who regularly chats to two SL coaches I can assure you they don't share you're "consensus" but I won't go into who they are blah blah blah

I've come to the conclusion Leeds fans are utterly insecure - you still frightened of slipping back to being the money bags laughing stocks you used to be?

Seriously Vasty, go and see an anger management therapist or something.

I'm not saying that there wasn't some good stuff played last season. I'm not saying that there weren't good games. But by the same token, there was some good stuff played at Stanningley last season, but that's not a reflection on the overall standard of the sport in this country. What I am saying is that that good play and those close games were fewer and farther between and that the standard of our league is falling behind that of other clubs and leagues. I believe that is due to Super League's inability to attract and retain the best talent.

It's got nothing to do with who I support although it's interesting that you only responded to the Leeds supporters, and not supporters of other clubs that claimed the standard had fallen.

You dont have to look far to see or hear peoples views on the games general decline. As someone whos first passion is with the game and not leeds, being a coach for 15 years id have preferred to see cas win last year and, i dont care who is in the 4 just that the standard of the game gets where id love it to be. Not being a dyed in the wool leeds fan id genuinly love to see a shake up with more teams competing at a high level.

But calm down, we dont agree with eachother and thats fine

Because most threads get taken over by Wakey fans it's unavoidable not to talk about them, they're the only ones on here crying foul at where some fans are placing them to finish.