I heard Kurt Gidley being asked what the difference between NRL and SL is, his answer was grass roots rugby, they have more kids in the game than we do.

by far the best post ive read on here for ages and 100% spot on about the quality of our game...its boring cos of the lack of quality players knocking around..when we had monas morley briers hodgson etc they were a joy to watch and we would of ripped this cas team of today a new one with a bit to spare..we have over complicated the game with silly and unwanted rules which are baffling not just to us fans but officials too..i,ll still watch the game in the hope a decent game crops up..rant over for now

I must say ,i am half expecting one of either Saints or Wigan to get to Old Trafford. Saints who have been woeful for most of the season or Wigan who ,like previous seasons,have been ravaged with injuries until the time arrives to up the ante.

imagine most peoples reations if sts or wigan won the gf and were classed as champions..it really does take the pee..the sooner we go to 1st pass the post as champs the better..now i hope cas go on and win the end of season knock out

I dont get the constant moaning about the winners of the grand final not being worthy champions....

If the storm don't win the NRL grand final this year no one will demand the rules be changed because the league leaders haven't ended up as champions for the second year in a row.

They were league leaders last season and 3rd place sharks beat them in the grandfinal. No one in Australia thought that was unfair in the slightest.

And if it happens again they won't question the format they'll question the storms big game mentality.

But if Cas don't win our grand final you can bet people will start petitions and Facebook will melt down with people being outraged. .....

And the reality is the Aussies don't suffer losers like we do... their attitude is if you've lost you weren't good enough... tough... get it right next time..
Our mentality is different if cas lose they'll probably get nominated for team of the season as a reward for a great season and the real champions will be cast as a pantomime villain

I'd quite like Leeds' back line and some forwards from Wigan/Saints/Hull.

I didn't say cherry pick, I said swap the full squad.

Because in all fairness us Brits are more used to top of the table being champions.

I dont know how you fix it but its demeaning to the team that as been the most consistant all year.

The Challenge cup is contested by all Rugby League, the Grand Final in its current format by the top 4 in SL. Both are essentially knock out competitions, but we call the Grand Final winners SL champions.

I think what you call whinning is just other peoples questions.

Lineham, Hughes and Brown we appalling, we had a chink of light from Atkins, Russell, Ratchford, Hill, Westwood and Savelio the rest were bang average as was the effort put in by the team. The most important thing was the two points and we got them.

I fear for the next opponents of the Catalan's the RFL will ensure they stay up, if the end up in the MP game god help their opponents!

The difference between the two leagues is a mentality but structure makes it so.
In the NRL there are many games where they might only play a team once in a season. SL plays all home and away to create balance. Just one game screws up the creditability of champions....Magic. scrap it now and give it a seprate 9s structure comp instead.

Absolutely no doubt that this season has been dire for rugby watching.

It wasn't that long ago i wouldnt have dreamed of missing a match on the TV. This season i started turning them off very early, which progressed to not watching them altogether.

Only games i am watching now are warrington ones and games with Castleford in.

The entertainment is low, the standard even lower.

Not that I give the "fixing" theory any credence at all, but if they are going to fix matches how about making sure they are entertaining while they are at it! Keep us on the edge of our seats, with every game going down to the wire. We could have a team dressed all in black that everyone hates (ignore that, we've already got that but in Cherry and White).