Quote: XBrettKennyX "
Couple this with the absolute decline in players standards and that is pretty good circumstantial evidence at the very least.
Frankly I couldn't give a monkeys. I am just very sad at the deterioration of the calibre of player in RL in general and Wigan RLFC specifically.'"
Agree with you 100%. RL in this country has seen its top end talent evaporate away.
20 years ago Wigan had Edwards, Bell, Offiah, Robinson, Botica, Lydon
10 years ago you had Farrell, Lam, Radlinski, Dallas, Craig Smith, Carney
Now there's Sam Tomkins who would be great in any era and O'Loughlin who would also have got in the teams of the past. The rest is forgettable.
But Wigan have won the Challenge Cup already like they always used to, and are a fair bet of winning the double, because they are playing in an era where you don't need to be great to win cups.
Back when Wigan were winning everything other fans say it was because the rest of the league was all amateur but look who was around the other sides then, Schofield (plus Hanley after 1991), Davies, Bateman, Scott Gibbs, players that were all streets ahead of what SL has today.
These days the game's best players are guys like Danny Brough and Rangi Chase. Sad.
English RL is going through a down spell, and the top Aussies don't come here any more because of the exchange rate and money in the Aussie game. But they haven't been replaced by great young British players, it has just meant players that wouldn't have been up to it in other eras, are filling SL spots.
Blake Green has been on fire and is a major contributing factor behind Liam Farrell's rise to prominence this year, coupled with the fact his replacement has played only a couple of first team matches and Matty Smith was nowhere near the levels he's played this year due to returning from injury, leads me to believe that wigan would have scored double the number of tries we posted on Sunday....
