Said it many times, but it's worth repeating.
Watching Panthers v Storm, and the difference in quality both on and off the park compared to SL, is seismic!
The commentary is slick and professional. The guys on the panel (like Eddie and Stevo were) look the part, being suited and booted, unlike Carney and Co these days who look like they've got dressed in the dark!
And of course the standard of the football itself, is as ever, summat special!
Spelly.
Different planet, never mind country !
SL has some decent drama but not a lot of quality. Case in point, Saints and Wigan. Ended up very exciting but, until Saints started their comeback, I thought it was flat and poor. The commentators try to big it up but good games don't need that. I'm sick to the back teeth of watching 5 by-the-numbers drives then a speculative kick that people just try and palm back. It's a bit boring. I'm sure Saints fans think that was the game of a lifetime, I probably would if I was them, but I felt like I was checking my phone a lot until the 72nd minute of the 80.
Have you noticed how an awful lot of SL games now seem to feature multiple players who were plying their trade in the NSW/QLD Cup comps a year or two ago? I watched Toulouse and York last night, there must have been 3 or 4 in either team.
Bit of an indictment of SL quality really. We know the NRL is light years ahead but now players from their 2nd level comps are stand-out players here. That scrum-half from York last night had a top game. There are probably hundreds at that level in Oz, not many here.
Cas have got 8 overseas players in their starting 13 tonight. None are big name players. Only a matter of time before every SL club has 10 former NSW/QLD Cup players in their line-up. Not sure it's the right way forward for the game tbh.
@gpo1971 The new players didn’t help them, they got 59 pit on them again, and were awful. Lots of schoolboy errors gifting HKR some tries.
Some of those new players weren't a good standard. The FB had a mare.
The second string league in aus is not a great standard, you might get a few new players coming through but the majority of the talent has already been mopped up by NRL clubs
for instance some Widnes players have gone over there and played in that league, and were well respected- but the step up to NRL ?
They're obviously good enough for SL though as all teams seem to have them, some in numbers.
Perhaps NRL see SL as feeder clubs for NRL teams?? That would be about the standard expected of RFL management, I guess.
I think that is the problem here, clubs are bringing in players from lower grade teams and expecting NRL standard. Some may be good standard for Championship, but currently on SL contracts.
On about the possibility of SL sides becoming NRL feeder teams, would this maybe offer a lifeline to us to get into SL?
There's currently 17 sides in the NRL comp, I would imagine they would all want their own feeder team, if so would SL need to match the number of teams?