Joined: May 27 2003 Posts: 20509 Location: educating League Freak on all things rugby league
TRB wrote:I think what you might be witnessing is the spreading out of the best talent. Let's take Westerman for example. There is no doubt that, 10 years ago, JW would have been lined up for a 'big-4' club right now. He hasn't, in fact he has a long-ish term deal at Cas' - and I hope he stays there for a long time. This is just an example of the fact the talent pool is now spread wider amongst the clubs.
However, despite there being MORE decent players being produced, there are fewer clubs with a monopoly of the talent and therefore fewer games of, say, the quality of last weeks Saints-Leeds game. The up side is that there is more and more chance of these clubs being beaten by other clubs in the comp.
Although jonh and others decry the loss of more 'big' games, the truth is that the majority of games 10 years ago were either predictable (big club versus small club) or of poorer quality (I would think of our team circa 2001 for example compared to now). Time dulls the memory and the games that we do tend to remember are mostly the better ones and I would suggest that there is some selective memory going on here for some.
The game is improving - I have no doubt about that at all.
I would suggest that because you have seen an undoubted improvement at Wakefield you see this in the League.
We will have to disagree on this one I think.
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Joined: Aug 12 2002 Posts: 5064 Location: Not Didcot
jonh wrote:I would suggest that because you have seen an undoubted improvement at Wakefield you see this in the League.
Conversely you have seen a decline at Wigan, relative to the rest of the league. But you have to put that into the context of the raising of standards across the league. Teams who have shown undoubted improvements this decade include Wakefield, Huddersfield, Hull, Hull KR, Warrington. Just Wigan (although only on the pitch) and Bradford struggling in this period.
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SBR wrote:Conversely you have seen a decline at Wigan, relative to the rest of the league. But you have to put that into the context of the raising of standards across the league. Teams who have shown undoubted improvements this decade include Wakefield, Huddersfield, Hull, Hull KR, Warrington. Just Wigan (although only on the pitch) and Bradford struggling in this period.
as a leeds fan i dont believe we are as we were in 04 and i dont believe the 08 side was as good as the 07 one
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Joined: May 27 2003 Posts: 20509 Location: educating League Freak on all things rugby league
SBR wrote:Conversely you have seen a decline at Wigan, relative to the rest of the league. But you have to put that into the context of the raising of standards across the league. Teams who have shown undoubted improvements this decade include Wakefield, Huddersfield, Hull, Hull KR, Warrington. Just Wigan (although only on the pitch) and Bradford struggling in this period.
I see more of most other clubs than I do of Wigan.
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