I think I'm moving the decade to the 2030s!

We might have the "arrogant fans that the rest of the league loves to hate" and "club spent too much and overextended itself" parts in common, just without the collection of trophies and world class rugby on display.

Seven?

7...people from Widnes have 7 fingers.

Don’t underestimate the role of “Superstars “ in raising the profile!

I've skipped all but the opening post on this ridiculous thread, so apologies if this has already been said,

but to emulate Wigan of the 80's we need to go and buy the young lad at full back for Leeds, Luke Gale and Greg Eden from Cas, Mark Percival and Alex Walmsley from Saints, the prop from Huddersfield that made the dream team. Tom Johnston from Wakey, oh and David Fifita while we are at it. a couple of top Aussies maybe Inglis and Latrell Mitchell and a good kiwi maybe Marty Tapau or someone, and then Bring Dec Patten through to show we're bringing local talent through.



oh and then win the challenge cup 8 times on the bounce and other stuff....

We look good for the last 2 points.

Yes the NFL is very striking in that way. It's a paradox that America is the bastion of unregulated free-market capitalism in so many ways, but when it comes to their sports they have a real attitude of putting the needs of the sport as a whole ahead of any one club. There isn't the selfishness and greed that you see in European sports - probably because the clubs know that having the NFL as a top class product results in huge revenues for every club.

But also the US has some other advantages which enable it to support a competitive league. The huge population and massive infrastructure for development, at high school and college football, means there is an enormous amount of talent to pick from and there is no need for NFL clubs to get involved with running academies. This is the prerequisite for the draft, and why you couldn't have it in rugby league here, because you need a separation between the professional clubs and the development of juniors, so players then "graduate" from the juniors and get picked up aged 21-23 as ready made players rather than picked up as schoolboys.

In Super League, I think the league is more competitive now, but it hasn't really improved as a product as the quality has dropped. I think what you really want for a good product is having at least 3 dominant forces, that create a balance at the top. Tennis has had it, with Federer, Nadal and Djokovic plus Murray at his best. The Premier League is benefiting from having City and Liverpool and prior to that possibly the best Premier League years were the years when Arsenal were strong but United were also at their peak. In Super League, we probably peaked mid 2000s when Bradford, Saints and Leeds were all top sides.

Your pack is no where near good enough

The pack was good enough to get us into two finals...where the halfback's wasn't good enough to get us over the line...
This has since been addressed.

At the moment we have ourselves, Wigan, St Helens, Leeds, Hull FC, Catalan, Castleford, Huddersfield? Spending I assume full cap (or close to). The only difference in salaries paid out to players will be from teh Marquee allowances that some clubs have.

How many clubs spent the same amount on players as Wigan in the 80's?

In short, It cant be done, and wont be repeated I feel in a salary capped sport.

is that what their saying in the lake district?

Once Ben Currie is back it will be.