AB90

If you watched the NSW Cup game it’s pretty evident why Newcastle fans aren’t calling for him. His defence is absolutely horrendous. To the point I genuinely don’t see how you can consider starting him at 6 in the NRL defending in the line. Im a huge fan of Pryce and think he could make top shelf FB but I would forget the whole five eight thing. Hopefully he gets a crack at FB this week if Ponga is out. SL players not getting respect is a bit of a stretch in this scenario. Newcastle fans are loving KKP!

When Thompson consistently played and got a good run of games he was pretty decent. The issue was his reported $800k annual salary which he simply wasn’t good enough to justify. For context, over the last 3 years, Luke Thompson would have been on a similar salary to Payne Haas. Compare the respective ROI on that $800k for the Bulldogs/Broncos!

I’m pretty sure it’s just a general rugby league point. Take the best 3 players out of an NRL, SL, Championship or Queensland Cup team and it’s going to have a significant impact on that teams effectiveness. Take Jai Field, Bevan French & Harry Smith out of Wigan and they’re not winning SL. Heck, they may even struggle to make the SL play offs with out those three.

Yeah agreed. Out of loyalty I think they’ll start with Gamble. Prediction - by the end of the year one either Hastings or Gamble (of even both) will be moved on for 2025.

They need to get Pryce in the team somehow. He’s way to talented to be playing NSW cup.

What does that make the West Tigers who also beat the 3 time NRL champions in 2023? Quote Kris Radlinski two weeks ago when discussing the WCC and the state of SL - ‘3 or 4 teams at the top (of SL) I would say would be mid table NRL standard’. Kris is probably better positioned to comment on this than you or I (clip is on YouTube if your interested). Your a Roosters supporter - how do see Wigan stacking up to your team? Do you think Wigan are on par with the Roosters squad (not just top 17) from a talent perspective? According to the bookies the Roosters are 4/5 favourites for the title so if Wigan are ‘Top 4 Quality’ this is a team they would likely need to finish above. I sense your hung up on 12th position so for context, the Newcastle Knights have the 11th best odds to win the NRL premiership in 2024 (according to Sportsbet). Sure, Wigan may be a better team but it’s not an outrageous to suggest that the Knight have just as talented of a team (if not even more talented).

Not sure what that’s meant to mean! If anything, that game justifies my position.

100%. I’ve always thought that significantly increasing the monetary fines would be a far better way to deal with this. If a player new that he would be fined his entire weekly wage if they committed a yellow or red card high tackle offence then rest assured they would do everything they in there power to avoid any chance of committing a high tackle! Fining the clubs is a great idea as well.

If SL teams had an NRL budget (£6.4m) then the teams would look nothing like what they look like now! That a good point you make. When making these hypothetical comparisons people generally just look at the starting 13 or 17 man, strongest line ups. Generally speaking, SL clubs depth is made up of young kids under the age of 21 who wouldn’t be anywhere near ready for 1st grade NRL. Depth is the biggest difference between the two competitions

I thought I was giving Saints & Wigan a huge compliment by saying they would finish 7th to 12th considering they spend less than half the money on player wages than the worse NRL club! If you objectively look at it player for player, position vs position, talent vs talent (which I feel your not doing) then I think that’s pretty accurate. This was the full strength Wigan side that won SL in 2023 in order of position- Field, Miski, King, Wardle, Marshall, French, Smith, Byrne, Powell, Ellis, Isa, Farrell, Smithies (Subs: Dupree, Mago, Pearce-Paul, O’Neill) Now this was the full strength 2023 Parramatta Eels team that came 10th in the NRL in 2023 - Gutherson, Sivo, Simonsson, Penisini, Blake, Brown, Moses, Paulo, Lussick, Campbell-Gillard, Matterson, Lane, Hopgood (Subs: Ofahengaou, Greig, Cartwright, Hands) Now are we 100% certain that the 2023 Wigan side is more talented than this Eels team? If you think they they are ‘top 4 quality’ then it should be a no contest. In my opinion from a talent perspective, the 2023 Eels player for player are stronger with the only positions Wigan have the Eels beat is Centre & Hooker and maybe Full Back. Eels are superior in the Middles, Edge Back Rowers, Halves & Wingers. If you can’t say that 2023 Wigan team are easily better than this 2023 Eels team then I struggle to see how they can be considered ‘too 4 quality’. Melbourne Storm are tipped to finish 5th in 2024 as per the bookies so you are ranking Wigan & Saints above the Storm.

My thoughts for each side: Wigan, Saints - 7th to 12th Warrington, Catalans - 13th 17th Hull KR, Leeds - 15th to 17th Salford, Huddersfield, Leigh, Hull, London, Castleford - All dead last by a mile

I assume Brisbane 3 will be in line well before Central Coast

It’s just not that simple as saying ‘learn to not hit people in the head’. That’s like saying ‘maybe footballers should learn when they tackle to get the ball not the man’ to avoid seriously injuring people. Players run the ball with the intention of making it as hard as possible for the defender to tackle them by making split second decisions right at the point of contact like side steps, dropping their body weight, bracing for contact, raising their arms to protect themselves, lowering their head etc. If players lower their tackle height that will naturally increase the concussion rate for the defenders.

100% agree that the red card rule should be reviewed. The discrepancy in the punishment especially if it occurs early in the game is to drastic specifically for those calls that could go either way (yellow or red). I like the American model whereby when a player gets ‘ejected’ they are removed from the game (fined, suspended etc) however their team doesn’t go down a man. In the first round of SL 5 of the 6 games had a team down to 12 via a red card. Do we really want that as a game? Another point I would look at is increasing the monetary fines. If players got fined half or even all their weekly salary for any yellow or red card high tackle discretion then rest assured they would be thinking twice when going into the tackle.

The internationals will be interesting because there doesn’t seem to be any indication (or any push) from OZ that they will follow the RFL’s interpretation. It’s almost a bit of a non issue at the moment in OZ. In 2023, there were 4 red cards in the NRL all year including play offs. 1 game into the Super League season and we are already half that which demonstrates just how different the attitudes are between the hemispheres.