Quote Peter Kingsley="Peter Kingsley"Recently leeds were trying to sign Gareth Widdop from the melbourre storm but ultimatly the transfer didn't happen because it simply wasn't financially viable with the wages in the NRL and the exchange rate.
I was also interested to see wigans recruitment and how they are losing finch, lima, leuluai and carmont, and how they have signed a couple of young guys in the halfbacks but as of yet, no big replacements.
This is something we will see more and more of as the final generation of quality imports moves on and clubs are forced to either look for young replacements over here, or queensland cup reserves.
The effect of this is 2 fold.
The overall quality of the competition is going to decline further. I think most realistic fans, who aren't brainwashed by sky will agree that quality has gradually declined in recent seasons. Well it's certainly not going to improve in the short term because we simply can't afford to fill the gaps with quality from the NRL anymore, which means we are relying on a thin player pool over here.
The second effect is that the competition will continue level up.... somewhat. I say somewhat because you still get the usual suspects come trophy time.
This means that now, more than ever teams need to putting all their focus on developing the young players, because over the coming years the successful teams will be the teams that do the best job of doing that. Warrington have a massive couple of years when hodgson, morley, briers and monghan move on but I hear their under 20's won the grand final, so they are already on their way.
Maybe the finanical clout of the NRL will force everyones hand in turning to youth, god knows we need it. Because no matter what was said about franchising, the quota etc, there are still too many teams who rely too much on second rate imports.
Alot of rugby fans in general seem to be dissallusioned with the game at present, for various reasons and some are touched upon above (quality of games) but now is the time to hang tight. Taking your money out of the game will not help things although obviously that's a personal choice which is respected. But I believe things will be alot better in 10 years, this is just a trough that we have to, and is necessary to go through.'"
What Rugby League has lost throughout the Super League era is most definitely a sense of authenticity. The americanised vision the era attributed towards this in the most part: the changing of team names, the inclusion of foam fingers and "try or "no try" cards has left the sport's strong following by deviating away from the similarities which has kept football's crowds mainly unaffected by austerity. There's no connection with the sport's great history, or tradition and people feel alienated because of it and the crowds suffer.
This present gap between Australia's salary cap and ours is the perfect opportunity to take advantage of teams being forced into this position of having to play their own home-grown talent and to focus on improving the quality of the national side and international stage of Rugby League.
What we should do is reduce the Super League down to 10 teams, play each other twice, top four are included in a play-off where 1 v 4, 2 v 3 and the winners face each other in the final.
A completely new level of competitiveness will be introduced, teams will no longer go easy at any point in the season and every game will have meaning. Consistency will be rewarded to the extent of being in the playoffs come the end of the season. In a 10 team league with all of them above average in quality, this competitive edge with last throughout the full season and can only help develop these young players which we will see on the scene more at present.
Let's erase these animals off the end of our clubs names, bring back traditional colours and team names and encourage fans to enjoy the authenticity and tradition of this sport once again in the improved competitive 10 team league that mainly develops our own young players. It's the perfect opportunity to also bring back Great Britain. An international team which people actually recognise from the past when we were somewhat competitive with the Aussies, and a name which has increased relevance because of the recent London Olympics and its success.
If we could introduce this league and develop our own players, we could beat Australia and New Zealand, improve the international side of the game, introduce the sport into the Olympics and the whole thing will thrive.
I can wish.
