We need the whole standard up- not just 14 top teams and ignore the rest. It would be like having a class full of 30 kids, putting all your effort into the most intelligent 5, and expecting the other 25 to improve. You dont improve the whole standard by only focussing on the top.

Good post and spot on.

Given the recent relationship berween GH and the other SL clubs, I'd be very surprised to see the likes of McManus or Lenaghan banging a drum to keep Leeds in SL if they finish bottom. of course it might get expanded next year but I don't reckon anyone will be out to do us special favours and nor should we expect any.

I'm not sure whether SL has got much weaker since I hardly watch it but I think the spectacle will improve once the new refereeing interpretations around the play the ball bed in.

The NRL seem very keen on recruiting players from SL so we must be producing quality. So maybe things aren't as bad as some people think?

I think when your team are on a downer it's easy to exaggerate.

Well this is southstander after all.

Being “on a downer” is what we do and why we’re successful.

The only way you could justify not relegating the bottom club this year is to expand the competition.

You can’t tell Toronto or Toulouse/Fev etc that they’re not coming up after they’ve spent money to do just that.

This is 100% true, SL has improved up until about 6 / 7 years ago, and since then we have started/have gone backwards. Its all down to the SL higher management and their abject failure to market the game correctly. They should be ashamed of their pot poor performance, a total disgrace. They are so hell bent of trying to expand it in Canada and the US as well as in Europe that they have let down the UK badly. SL will die if Sky pull the plug. We have a salary cap that is unfit for purpose, a cap of £2m, the same as what SKY give each SL team, no wonder the game is going backwards all the cap does is reduce the game down to the worse team in the league, the lowest denominator so to speak, we end up with the cream of the crap. The only way forward is to take the marketing away from SL, allow teams to market themselves and raise the salary cap immediately to £5m. If a team can afford £5m to spend on players then great we can then sign top quality players where fans will pay to watch these players, it will also attract more youngsters into the game and the quality of the game will be better. Money attracts money, its a risk but a well judged risk, Sky will then have to cough up more money for their TV rights. Without changes and trying to even the game across SL its turning away the fans and turning away natural talent. The purse strings must be cut and clubs allowed to spend more on players etc.
Only teams who rely on SKY money alone will fall by the wayside, each club has to take on their own responsibility. Cow sheds are that are called grounds need to be flattened.
Get rid of this stupid salary cap.

Getting rid of the cap should be the last thing the game does. The clubs would massively overspend if we did.

How would getting rid of the cap improve player development?

We need a different cap that yes rises steadily over time but that also forces spending on certain areas including player development.

There is nothing wrong with a cap. Our current set one though is for children’s games though, not professional full time sports. It’s ridiculously low, and an issue for the game. Three million would be a more realistic set amount.

The cap most definitely needs raising.. it's been too low for far far top long. The game is being left behind by other sports and obliterated by the NRL and union

It has been my belief for some years that the standard of RL in England has been in a state of decline. Unless those who are supposed to set the strategic agenda and direction for the sport get a grip soon I think we will see the game we love cease to exist as a competitive professional sport. There is simply not enough money in RL. The blame for that IMO sits on the shoulders of those in charge of directing and developing the game. We have taken so many decisions to spend resources trying to promote the game in the South of England, France and now the US and Canada. The priority should have been to build a competitive product in the heartlands first and from that secure base, with an attractive competitive product, promote the game at home and abroad. Instead of that we have a sport in decline grasping at straws.