After more than 50 years of supporting the Airie Birds and loving the game I have to say this season is turning out to be the best I’ve ever witnessed. Not for the usual suspects (us included in our pomp) playing glittering attacking rugby against “less than” opposition.....but because we are having contests where, pre-match, the outcomes are so hard to judge and because of this so are the league standings. It's the season of surprises.
Out of the blue really for me, we now have a league where there are no longer any "gimme’s." Anyone can beat anyone any given week.
ie. The Giants came here with 1 win in 8 and for 60mins it looked like there was nothing between the teams. Recently too Trinity would have been welcomed as a possible 2 points for most, but they have transformed themselves into a winning side almost overnight. Its not inconceivable that top of the league Wire on 2 back to back losses and losing Chris Sandow could lose at bottom side Hudds Giants this next round.
It’s all compelling, fascinating stuff. Every game appears to be in the balance and so difficult to predict. I’m absolutely loving it.

If this is evidence that loosely speaking the salary cap is being adopted properly at last, then the days of clubs with money ruling the game may not be a foregone conclusion.
Granted, the organisations of the wealthier clubs behind the scenes may be slicker, with higher quality youth programmes and maybe more quality youth coming through, better Management infrastructure, etc etc. and that should be beneficial.
However Cas, Wakey and Fev have always turned out great young players without grand training centres and prove the conveyor belt can turn out good players if the young of the community just want to play the game.

I really hope its our year for some silverware, I believe its coming soon anyway. But for sure if the season continues as it is, silverware or not, it can only be good for the game in creating great contests and passion for the game which was starting to wane. And hopefully a new crop of new talent across the game who got into it just because we learned to love it again.

Just need get the refs sorted out now and some decent TV coverage. Lol. Now that’s easier said than done I think.

I think it's the salary cap in the respect like Wigan et al can no longer attract the big stars financially is the biggest reason. If your a top player your going to choose a side a team with recent success in the hope to join that success. That's one reason why the same 4(ish) teams have been where they are in my view.
The salary cap is good for the league and our future international aspirations too.

How long has the salary cap being in place, there has never been a season where we don't have upsets or teams going on runs or performing above expectation for short periods.
But the tables don't lie, aside from the odd outlier that pops its head up (Huddersfield of recent times) the salary cap has not had an effect on balancing things up.
The reason the Fev/Cas/Wakey areas produce a lot of good players is in part down to how little else there is for kids in those areas, it's the poorest/lowest paid area in the Yorkshire and Humber area (wakefirld council stats) and how playing rugby and professional paid sport as a whole is seen as a way out and to gain personal success/financial reward which is no bad thing if that leads kids whom may get into trouble be occupied with rugby.

However because of the deprivation in the area players want to move on to 'bigger' and better clubs and areas that are seen as better (rightly or wrongly), as it's always been. There are lots of reasons due to societal and population/employment levels as to why Wigan and Leeds and further back Huddersfield have been so successful.

A salary cap should balance things but it hasn't and I still don't see it working as a major reason for any rebalancing that does occur.

I agree to an extent. It's difficult to know exactly without knowing what would have happened if the salary cap hadn't have come in.

Although there will always be players you mentioned that come through at Cas/Wakey and want to move up the road to the bigger clubs, the salary cap IMO does give those clubs more chance to keep their players. It also means they can obtain some pretty decent players that are unable to get under the salary cap at the big clubs. Look at McShane for Cas or BJB for Wakey, if there wasn't a cap, Leeds may have kept both as part of a much larger squad.

The last 3 seasons have seen 7 of the 12 clubs make major finals. Those that haven't; Hudds came very very close, Catalans have a great squad this year, Widnes, Wakefield & Salford have upped their game and could put together a decent cup run.

I agree with the OP that this is the most open Superleague I can remember.

Not sure it's anything to do with the salary cap as wire seem to be doing OK this year but I do think wigan and leeds are reaping their reward for poor recruitment and retention in recent years plus saints are financially stretched following their stadium move which seems to have affected their recruitment. The quality of coaching is also at a low point IMO with the likes of mcdermott, wane and cunningham nowhere near the previous incumbents of their respective roles