WCC - Leeds Rhinos v Melbourne Storm

[Someone]

This may come as a shock but some of us just like watching rugby league, especially when they're unusual match ups. Maybe time to tone down the whinging, yeah?

+1

 

[thorson1987]

This may come as a shock but some of us just like watching rugby league, especially when they're unusual match ups. Maybe time to tone down the whinging, yeah?

On this forum. Yeah right.

BTW I agree with you.

 

[Matchball]

They should relegate the bottom team to SL from the NRL and promote the SL winner to NRL.

That would be awesome seeing Parra getting stuck in England.

 

[Evenflow]

I can't say i've ever been a big fan of the concept but given i'm over here at the moment and will be heading up for the game i'm really looking forward to it. Hopefully we win as i want to win every game we play in be it a trial or otherwise but the points in round 1 will mean a shitload more than this.

 

[PaddyBoy]

This may come as a shock but some of us just like watching rugby league, especially when they're unusual match ups. Maybe time to tone down the whinging, yeah?

Definitely this.

Though I don't see why you can't have a 4 team knock out/round robin with the minor premiers/premiers. Chelsea were hardly the best team in Europe last year, they were shite that year and basically fluked the win but it's still a great comp.

This year we would have Canterbury, Melbourne, Leeds and Wigan facing off; that does look like a pretty good comp.

 

[STORM.99/07]

the leeds ground was covered in snow a couple of days ago.

 

[Raiderdave]

Leeds should win

but thats no reflection on the Storm because the way this WCC is set up is very biased to the English sides
the Storm will have had only 1 mickey mouse hit out prior to playing
Leeds will have played 3 comp games

Leeds by 8 to 12

 

[Harrigan]

Our salary cap is the equivalent of $2.7m. I think that evens up the UK soil bias.

The snow storm was yesterday too. Dumped about 10cm on us in 4 or 5 hours. It's all gone today though as it rained overnight and was warm today (about 7c). We play Salford there in 22 hours time and have undersoil heating anyway. It just wasn't turned on yesterday as there was no need for it.

Here's Billy Slater's tweet of the pitch yesterday FWIW

 

[Canard]

Whats the point of the heating/lighting? rig in just the kick off area?

Its almost like they are protecting a cricket pitch?

As for the changes, it seems worth a try, I assume for the top 3 NRL clubs it will replace one of there trials

 

[Harrigan]

Whats the point of the heating/lighting? rig in just the kick off area?

Its almost like they are protecting a cricket pitch?

It moves.

They were probably repairing the centre area of the pitch before the snow hit.

 

[PaddyBoy]

Whats the point of the heating/lighting? rig in just the kick off area?

Its almost like they are protecting a cricket pitch?

As for the changes, it seems worth a try, I assume for the top 3 NRL clubs it will replace one of there trials

They'd move it surely.

Imagine how much it would cost to have one big one.

 

[roughyedspud]

the snow melted today.....all gone

 

[Harrigan]

It's like I'm not here... :lol:

 

[LeedsStorm]

Seems odd to widen the WCC concept as the respective salary caps become more and more different

 

[roughyedspud]

the money is'nt going to make them any better than they currently are...

 

[roughyedspud]

It's like I'm not here... :lol:

lol sorry...im on my phone its a ball ache zooming in and out,just saw a picture of the snow....

 

[Canard]

Seems odd to widen the WCC concept as the respective salary caps become more and more different

Its not like a massive influx of high class League players are suddenly at NRL teams due to the salary cap increases.

There is what about 10 English players in the NRL tops?

 

[LeedsStorm]

Its not like a massive influx of high class League players are suddenly at NRL teams due to the salary cap increases.

There is what about 10 English players in the NRL tops?

Wasn't really making reference to the present. Isn't the NRL salary cap meant to rise to $7M by 2017? I guess the concern would be how a $4.5M deficit in players wages would effect players movement and subsequently ESL clubs chances in a WCC comp.

 

[VictoryFC]

Wasn't really making reference to the present. Isn't the NRL salary cap meant to rise to $7M by 2017? I guess the concern would be how a $4.5M deficit in players wages would effect players movement and subsequently ESL clubs chances in a WCC comp.

As has already been said it won't make the kind of difference one might think. For one, the $7m salary cap will mean bigger pay packets for existing NRL players. Those players are not going to perform better because they're earning more money, they'll just be getting paid more than they were for a similar amount of output. And as it stands, SL clubs can match NRL clubs on any given day (over the course of the season is another matter that is irrelevant here). Thats the obvious first point.

The second one is that the UK is not some untapped resource for the NRL. NRL clubs have dipped into the player pool in the UK, and the extra salary cap will lead to a few more coming over no doubt (Tomkins being an obvious target), but its hardly going to lead to an exodus. We still produce the best players over here. Theres no reason to raid the UK outside of the real gems.

An expanded WCC will still be competitive.

And by the time the NRL actually reaches $7m, one would hope the Super League has increased its TV contract and subsequently its salary cap too.

 

[Perth Red]

As has already been said it won't make the kind of difference one might think. For one, the $7m salary cap will mean bigger pay packets for existing NRL players. Those players are not going to perform better because they're earning more money, they'll just be getting paid more than they were for a similar amount of output. And as it stands, SL clubs can match NRL clubs on any given day (over the course of the season is another matter that is irrelevant here). Thats the obvious first point.

The second one is that the UK is not some untapped resource for the NRL. NRL clubs have dipped into the player pool in the UK, and the extra salary cap will lead to a few more coming over no doubt (Tomkins being an obvious target), but its hardly going to lead to an exodus. We still produce the best players over here. Theres no reason to raid the UK outside of the real gems.

An expanded WCC will still be competitive.

And by the time the NRL actually reaches $7m, one would hope the Super League has increased its TV contract and subsequently its salary cap too.

It's going to make a huge difference. For the first time since ESL started this year more players have gone from SL to NRL than NRL to SL. The NRL player pool for SL will all but dry up in the next couple of years and the best ESL talent will move to the NRL. How you think this won't affect ESL club strength I don't know.

As for the ESL salary cap, most clubs want it reduced as they can't afford it now.