Surely Bailey over McDonald in 2004. Bailey was probably at his best for us in his early days too, gaining GB caps around that time.

You're right, although I think Bailey got his GB caps in 2003.
I remember McDonald being superb in 2004 also. A case could be made that our props now, are better than in 2004. On paper at least

Anybody who thinks there is a team around now who could compete with the mid 2000's teams are seriously on something dangerous.

Bailey got his GB caps in the 2004 tri nations after our GF win.

I would say it would be a split for me regards props from then and now. I would take Bailey and Mcdermott from the 2004 team and Cuthbertson and Garbutt from now. Prop wasn't our strongest area back then though.

The Saints, Bradford, Leeds and even Wigan and Hull teams who won little were very strong from 2003-2007, even though i think this Cas team could compete at times it wouldn't get a sniff at silverware.

All opinions of course. Cas can only beat what is in front of them right now though, and so far they have run away with the league playing top notch rugby and you can't do much more than that.

They are playing top notch rugby in comparison to the competition they have, and therefore a joy to watch. As you say they can only beat what is put in front of them, but all that competition is absolute dire in comparison to years gone by. Forget the attacking quality, even if these poor teams played with the sort of desire and intensity in defence that teams were doing in previous years, then that quality attacking game of Cas wouldn't really be happening.

The (not so) great thing about threads like this one, is that they can never be resolved. Short of a back to the future style intervention, Cas 2017 can never play Leeds 2004, I bet it'd be a belter of a game though. The important things for mine is that 1) Cas have been the stand out Team this year and as others have said a joy to watch (unless they were playing us) and 2) There appears to be a consensus that Super League is going backwards. If 2) is true, it doesn't bode well for the future of the sport we love.

It isn't only Super League going backwards. The game as a whole, including the NRL is going the same way.

Even if you could what rules do you play it under? The ruck, PTB's, 3/4 men in a tackle etc, so much different from 2004.

Perhaps a better closer comparison would be Warrington 2011 vs Castleford 2017. Both played great attacking rugby, scored points for fun, won their 1st LLS, got knocked out of the cup in the QF by the eventual winners and just like Cas are going to do Wire lost a home playoff SF when everyone thought they were nailed to reach Old Trafford

I think the difference between this Cas side & other teams from earlier years, even the better Cas team of c1992, is that this one is better coached. The Leeds, Bradford, Saints, Wigan teams were stacked with great players who played a far more off the cuff style with plenty of individual brilliance. Cas have improved as a team & as a squad over the last 4 years, but there are only probably a couple of players who are shoe-ins for England, Aus or NZ. I reckon Hull have easily the top squad in SL, but Radford lacks attacking nous as a coach.