Quote: Grimmy "I'm not as down on the concept as many seem to be because I don't think this year's results were genuinely reflective of the quality of our top teams, and fully expect SL to win at least a game next year. However, I'm less convinced of the ability of the likes of Cas, Huddersfield and Catalans to drum up a sufficient crowd or have a dig at winning. These are teams that consistently fall short in the play offs, after all. Lets stick with three, work at winning a game, then our first series, then look at taking it to Aus. After that perhaps the competitiveness of the new Super 8s fornat will have improved the rest of the league to the point were expanding the competition could ve viable'"
I agree with this. Take James Roby out of Saints and they are not half the team. Put him back in and they compete. Take Sam and Joel Tomkins plus Josh Charnley and Micky Mac out of Wigan and we only have kids and journeymen in reserve. Leeds have been decimated by injury, aside from losing JP and Sinfield, take Briscoe, McGuire, Ward, JJB & Ablett out and that's a lot to cover, especially as the Cowboys were at full strength.
Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Even our newly relaid pitch took out the mudbath equaliser from last year, when the conditions worked in our favour. (And fair play the Broncos were a delight to watch last Saturday - they gave us a real lesson)
I don't think it will get any worse for Super League teams. Plus, Warrington competed well last year and on current form they probably would have done better than Saints or us. I also agree that outside of those four we wouldn't get the crowds or the quality to compete.
