Re: More competitive than ever or just a poorer standard? : Mon Jul 08, 2019 10:35 am  

FearTheVee wrote:

Those would be marquee players though surely and therefore cap exempt?

Those players might be marquee today but I think the issue is that we used to get those players in without those marquee exemptions because they were able to fit under a salary cap that was both more comparable to the NRL cap and worth more in real terms than it is today.

The issue is also not necessarily one of the salary cap, but of the value of those players. You can bring in a player on whatever money you like and whilst only a fraction of that appears on the salary cap, the full value appears on the bottom line.

So does £300K for "AN Player" from the NRL today make as good a business case as £150K for a Brent Webb, Lesley Vainikolo or a Jamie Lyon given that in that same period, the sport isn't really generating any more revenue from that talent (in terms of TV, sponsorship etc)?

Re: More competitive than ever or just a poorer standard? : Mon Jul 08, 2019 11:15 am  

MattyB wrote:

But you're signing Sarginson from us so look on the bright side.

Aren’t they “stripping him away” from you?

Re: More competitive than ever or just a poorer standard? : Mon Jul 08, 2019 11:22 am  

Surely injuries have a lot to do with the quality of a season? There are a number of teams who have some of their best players sat in the stands for the rest of the season, and there are a number of players with niggling injuries who seem to be playing 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off.

If every team had their first choice squads available every week, the quality would be extremely competitive, but it's the nature of the beast. As the game has got faster and more physical, the injuries, and recovery times, have reflected this.

Re: More competitive than ever or just a poorer standard? : Mon Jul 08, 2019 11:29 am  

King Street Cat wrote:

Surely injuries have a lot to do with the quality of a season? There are a number of teams who have some of their best players sat in the stands for the rest of the season, and there are a number of players with niggling injuries who seem to be playing 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off.

If every team had their first choice squads available every week, the quality would be extremely competitive, but it's the nature of the beast. As the game has got faster and more physical, the injuries, and recovery times, have reflected this.

Agreed. Injuries plus the problems at perennial challengers such as Wigan and Leeds.

Injuries are the biggest threat to our game I believe. It feels like every game is tainted by the amount of quality out on the sidelines. It's having a massive effect on the outcome of games.

Re: More competitive than ever or just a poorer standard? : Mon Jul 08, 2019 11:32 am  

ThePrinter wrote:

Aren’t they “stripping him away” from you?

We know how you love an argument but no we are not stripping him away he's finished with at Wigan and therfore surplus to requirements. Jackson Hastings is hot property therefore wanted by Wigan.

Rob Lui quality required by Leeds, Tui whatever he's called is your dirty washing.

See the difference ?

Re: More competitive than ever or just a poorer standard? : Mon Jul 08, 2019 1:05 pm  

FearTheVee wrote:

Those would be marquee players though surely and therefore cap exempt?

Not sure if you know, but its only the premium beyond the upper limit (either £150k or £175k can't quite remember) which is not counted towards the Cap.

Re: More competitive than ever or just a poorer standard? : Mon Jul 08, 2019 1:10 pm  

Salford red all over wrote:

We know how you love an argument but no we are not stripping him away he's finished with at Wigan and therfore surplus to requirements. Jackson Hastings is hot property therefore wanted by Wigan.

Rob Lui quality required by Leeds, Tui whatever he's called is your dirty washing.

See the difference ?

Mentioned by many, Hastings and Lui probably the best half back partnership in Superleague 2019 it annoys me that Leeds in desperation to stay up have broken that partnership and offered the "booby prize" as part of the deal.

Re: More competitive than ever or just a poorer standard? : Mon Jul 08, 2019 3:13 pm  

Judder Man wrote:

Mentioned by many, Hastings and Lui probably the best half back partnership in Superleague 2019 it annoys me that Leeds in desperation to stay up have broken that partnership and offered the "booby prize" as part of the deal.

Lui was leaving at the end of the season anyway. Easily avoidable if Salford could afford to keep them, should other clubs just stay away from these players just because the club they’re at can’t pay them as much?

Wanting players to stay at clubs where they won’t earn as much is very selfish given how short a RL career can be and how RL players don’t really earn as much as their efforts deserve.

Re: More competitive than ever or just a poorer standard? : Mon Jul 08, 2019 4:18 pm  

Him wrote:

Those days have gone.

They need longer and longer off-seasons, a top Aussie isn’t going to put at risk their start to the NRL season or god forbid their Origin hopes over a few games in the UK. That’s not withstanding their clubs actually allowing them to.

We'll never know who is correct, as the concurrent seasons aren't going to change any time soon.

Re: More competitive than ever or just a poorer standard? : Tue Jul 09, 2019 8:24 am  

Halifax1989 wrote:

What I would say is that often the lower standard games are the most exciting to watch. The NRL is often less exciting because the teams are so fit, so well structured, so they cancel each other out and defence wins.

Errors, poor decisons, poor fitness all promote good attacking matches.

Cant imagine why anyone would want to watch a sport where the result could go either way because the sides are evenly matched and there is jeopardy accross the league (either in qualifying for the play offs or avoiding relegation.
Of course their is disparity between SL and the NRL, primarily down to the gulf in revenue and salary cap.

Much of difference in "quality" is due to Leeds and Wigan being "average".. If they were competing with Wire and Saints at the top of the pile, this thread wouldn't have been started.
The return of relegation has meant that, with Saints being nailed on for the LLS and London being competitive, much of the focus has been on relegation rather than the GF but, this will shift back to the GF later in the season.
Finally, although there have always been injuries within the sport, there does appear to be way more injuries in the last 2 or 3 seasons then in the earlier years of SL, which has left many sides playing with "half a team" which will also cause a drop in quality and it's no coincidence that both Saints and Wire have been relatively injury free for most of the season and it's hard to know just why there appears to be such an increase.
Many of the sides in mid/low table have regularly had 6-8 players missing from their first choice 17, which is huge.