It is also crazily enough down to Rugby League being a sport and as with all sports franchised or not you still can't predict what will happen on the field. Hull KR have the money as well but losing Dobson has left a big gap in their team.

Nice of you to discount Cas,I hope all other SL teams do the same.

What really......you don't say.



Nobody is questioning the sporting aspect, the thread is about the improvement due to franchising.



As far as not being able to predict what it is going to happen on the field has always been the case and is not exclusive to now. It is true in a season there will be results that will be eye openers, but ultimately over the season of any team sport (franchised or not) the more 'powerful & financially stable' clubs will win out.

All very true. The point I was trying to make/question I was asking, admittedly very badly, was how will we know when franchising has improved things? Some clubs will always be more powerful and have better finances than others. As has already been said the salary cap, quota restrictions and sugar daddies have shaped this season more than franchising has. We've been waiting 20 years for expansion to take off could be an even longer haul for franchising.

It was more than a pleasure. And I wouldn't get too carried away. You have had a string of very winnable games. Granted, you had to win them, but you've only had one tough game, and that was at home. You are going to hit a glut of really tough games and slide down the table pretty quickly. You'll finish above us, but at least it will remove that unbearable smugness knocking around Cas at the moment.



I'm not sure what I think about franchising sometimes. For me, it is one up, one down, but then sometimes I wonder whether the RFL are right, and clubs do need some stability to grow. The issue is then whether expansion clubs deserve the special breaks when no one goes to watch them. But then I think of Widnes, who I think of as a top flight club, but who have done nothing on the pitch since they went down to justify coming up.

I'm a hudds town fan and have been for years,if it wasn't for town giants would have gone under as davey nearly ruined the football to keep rugby afloat.Franchise is soley about money and nothing else,don't let anybody kid you.

Salary cap works, franchising supposedly makes clubs more stable, yet still you have clubs going into admin or rellying on a wealthy benefactor.

Leeds and Saints have slipped back in my opinion making Warrington and Huddersfield etc appear to be far better than what they are.

We are still light years away from a strong international games and eddie explaining about Brough switching nationality on sky last night makes it look ridiculous!

A healthy league needs a strong salary cap, as for franchises? it's just a smokescreen for the RFL to shoe horn in who they want and remove those they no longer care for IMHO.

every team as improved apart from you lot in the 3 years thats why you will be giving your marching orders in july and love the discounting cas bit lol like i said hopefully only club to be discounted will be you lot in july

Really? Salford, Hull, Catalan, Quins, Crusaders, Hull KR, Saints, Bradford and Leeds have all improved over the last 3 years? Seems to me that the sides who have really improved are Wire, Wigan and Hudds and that is down to them now having coaches in charge who are spending the money wisely. It helps that they have the money in the first place of course.

who invited the idiot?

Let's see if he's still as cocky in September

Cas have had a 'string' of easy games?



If they're "easy" games then why didn't we finish top eight last season with only losses against Wigan, Wire, Saints and Leeds?



No game in SL is easy (and to think so is absolutely bloody ridiculous) and we lost to Hull KR twice, Hull once, Bradford once last season.



I think you discounted us purely out of spite (or jealousy), whichever, and whether you like it or not, we are where we are because we've played well and deserve to be there.



Easy for a team like Wigan, perhaps. For a team like Cas, they're big games that we need to win to push on and progress.