Know we have some fans of the great game on here but there's no thread, so here y'go. Always enjoyed following Wigan, and especially enjoyed the performance last night. Best I can remember in the 20 years I've been watching them.
Rugby League thread
- Thread starter Bruce Wayne
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Elong
The fire rises
Don't get to see hardly any of the northern hemisphere stuff, but the NRL is on every weekend, pretty much every game live, so it's good sunday afternoon viewing with a sore head from the night before. There's class in every team this season, very tight league.
I wouldn't say I'm a massive fan or know every stat or decent player, but it's hard to argue against it being excellent entertainment.
I wouldn't say I'm a massive fan or know every stat or decent player, but it's hard to argue against it being excellent entertainment.
It's jarg wool rugby and everyone who plays it is on steroids.
Elong
The fire rises
Which is fantastic. Shoulder charge tackles are particularly entertaining. You'd never catch me playing it though.
Don't get to see much NRL but I hear that Inglis is now tearing it up at full back? Absolutely love watching that guy, he's a complete beast. Best rugby player of either code on the planet imo, and by quite some distance.
Elong
The fire rises
He's tearing it up this season, but he was shocking (by his standards) for the 2 seasons before it. Currently Benji Marshall and Johnathon Thurston are my two picks for best player on the planet status, but the beauty of Aussie League is there are so many outstanding backs right now. The Queensland backline last week would destroy any other team in recent memory.
I think that's where the game down under stands apart from the British game I think. Your half backs are way better than ours. We've got decent forwards, and backs like Tomkins and Hall are decent, but our halves are nowhere near as good as Thurston or Marshall.
ScouseBlueBoy
Player Valuation: £15m
Ah, fellow leaguies. Nice. I supported Huyton RLFC - never missed a home game in the last 10 years of their existence at Alt Park.
I tend to veer more towards Wigan than Saints, mainly because when the fans found out I was a Scouser, Wigan fans welcomed me, whilst Saints fans abused me. They told me to 'p*** off back to Liverpool and watch sucker' (whatever that is).
Every try Saints concede is a source of great delight.
I tend to veer more towards Wigan than Saints, mainly because when the fans found out I was a Scouser, Wigan fans welcomed me, whilst Saints fans abused me. They told me to 'p*** off back to Liverpool and watch sucker' (whatever that is).
Every try Saints concede is a source of great delight.
Saliba
Player Valuation: £8m
James Graham. Farrrking Boss! So happy to have him at Canterbury. Honestly, English forwards tear up, the Burgess brothers, Ellis, Graham are all amazingly good.
Hopefully Widdop turns into a decent player for you guys.
Not to mention - apparently Graham is a mad toffee.
Hopefully Widdop turns into a decent player for you guys.
Not to mention - apparently Graham is a mad toffee.
Saliba
Player Valuation: £8m
Chico sounds like he's from Melbourne.
James Graham is a fine player. It's a funny league at the moment, as both Saints and Leeds are struggling and appear to be in transition. Saints obviously lost Cunningham and Long recently, with Graham also moving on. Roby is still a threat but as a team they're nowhere near their old selves, as shown by the battering they received by Wigan at the Magic Weekend.
Leeds likewise seem a team in transition. Peacock looked awfully slow and pedestrian on Friday night, and it was the quietest I've seen Rob Burrow in a long time. Him and McGuire seem on the wane this season. When you throw Bradford into the mix you have the three teams that have largely dominated in the Super League era on the wane.
Yet despite that, as was shown last year, you can have a mediocre year but as long as you make the play-offs you have a chance. Not sure that's a very fair system myself as you have to give more power to the weekly rounds and reward teams like Wigan and Warrington (not to mention Catalans and Huddersfield) that are more consistent.
Can really see the competition being dominated by those with excellent youth setups though. Union is an obvious threat but the higher salary cap down under means there's both a lower incentive for their players to come here + higher incentive for our best to go there. So you have to think the quality of imports will be lower, meaning if you have quality youngsters you'll do well. Wigan seem incredibly well stocked on that front, whilst Leeds and Saints usually have good kids. Warrington should be worried though as their youth scheme isn't so hot.
Leeds likewise seem a team in transition. Peacock looked awfully slow and pedestrian on Friday night, and it was the quietest I've seen Rob Burrow in a long time. Him and McGuire seem on the wane this season. When you throw Bradford into the mix you have the three teams that have largely dominated in the Super League era on the wane.
Yet despite that, as was shown last year, you can have a mediocre year but as long as you make the play-offs you have a chance. Not sure that's a very fair system myself as you have to give more power to the weekly rounds and reward teams like Wigan and Warrington (not to mention Catalans and Huddersfield) that are more consistent.
Can really see the competition being dominated by those with excellent youth setups though. Union is an obvious threat but the higher salary cap down under means there's both a lower incentive for their players to come here + higher incentive for our best to go there. So you have to think the quality of imports will be lower, meaning if you have quality youngsters you'll do well. Wigan seem incredibly well stocked on that front, whilst Leeds and Saints usually have good kids. Warrington should be worried though as their youth scheme isn't so hot.
Saliba
Player Valuation: £8m
I think the ESL's biggest problem is you have no real origin. I mean sure, you have SL vs Exiles, but half of the exiles couldnt even crack a rep team here. Your game needs something which exposes the players to a higher intensity of footy. I mean look at the internationals, normally you're always in it for 60 mins and then we run over you guys. If you had a way to better prepare your players and give them more match experience I think it would be a completely different story.
Yeah I agree. To be honest I think we have too many teams in the league. You look at Widnes this year and they've been rolled over by everyone. When the salary cap hasn't risen since its inception, and you still have teams not spending the maximum, you have to conclude that there are too many teams fighting for both the available cash and player pool.
I dare say if you ditched Widnes, London, Cas and Wakefield few outside fans of those clubs would really notice. People like Rangi Chase would go to better teams, making the 10 remaining sides much stronger and the games between them more intense.
It's good that we have a number of players in the NRL now as they gain experience of that high intensity, but we need to do much more to make Super League stronger, and a big part of that has to be to generate more cash. It's one thing having Graham et al going to the NRL but another entirely when we lose guys like Joel Tomkins and Kyle Eastmond to Union, where their talent is wasted. Bad enough that top coaching talent like Andy Farrell and Sean Edwards are lost to the game without players being lost as well.
I dare say if you ditched Widnes, London, Cas and Wakefield few outside fans of those clubs would really notice. People like Rangi Chase would go to better teams, making the 10 remaining sides much stronger and the games between them more intense.
It's good that we have a number of players in the NRL now as they gain experience of that high intensity, but we need to do much more to make Super League stronger, and a big part of that has to be to generate more cash. It's one thing having Graham et al going to the NRL but another entirely when we lose guys like Joel Tomkins and Kyle Eastmond to Union, where their talent is wasted. Bad enough that top coaching talent like Andy Farrell and Sean Edwards are lost to the game without players being lost as well.
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