I just watched the highlights of a game between Wentworthville (Parramatta Feeder Club) and the Cronulla/ Melbourne feeder club...final score 33 - 26 and teams packed with NRL/ SL and representative experience...

published squads as follows... the depth of talent here in Australasia is scary!

Wentworthville
1. Tom Humble
2. Chris Hicks
3. Troy Savage
4. Karl Filiga
5. Chris Walker
6. Aaron Fluke
7. Daniel Mortimer
8. Pele Peletelese
9. Anthony Mitchell
10. Manase Manuokafoa
11. Nathan Armit ©
12. Danny Howard
13. Mitch Stanfield

14. Matt Hunt
15. Reni Maitua
16. Valu Nasio
17. Martin Field
18. Carl Webb

Cronulla
1. Ryan Tongia
2. Nathan Stapleton
3. Dean Collis
4. Ricky Leutele
5. Stewart Mills
6. Jason McGrady
7. Tim Smith
8. Troy Thompson
9. Jarred Farlow
10. Johnny Mannah
11. Broderick Wright
12. Robbie Rochow
13. Trent Grubb

14. Andrew Clayton
15. Siosaia Vave
16. Jake Hawkins
17. Kose Lelei
18. Tyrone Viiga

Yep, I recognise quite a few of those names!

and I promise that those you don't are generally young talented kids trying out against te men to see how they are developing... an example is Stewart Mills who is a young bolter at the Sharks.. spent the last month playing 2 games of NRL (in an injury crisis) the 2 weeks NSW now back captaining the u20s....

Daniel Mortimer for Wentworh ... a young player who hit first grade at Parra early, is now back learning his trade with the lower grades...

Carl Webb who is fighting back to full fitness...

either of these two teams would have pushed any superleague team hard and beaten many of them!

Good post this and it just shows what is available if you are willing to look. Franchise or no franchise I can't believe that we could not have tempted a couple of very good players over here for the season to strenghten our squad.

Spook, why don't you become a scout down under, and e-mail the club, when you spot some thing...

Makes you wonder how many sides they could field that would beat us. I could imagine alone a 2nd string Exiles side would take us 50% of the time.

I bet the 5th string Aussie side could give us one hell of a game.

You wish, might be a bit more than that - any NRL team would win SL IMO so more like 10th string at least

Watched that Stewart Mills play against the Roosters, it was his first NRL game. He scored, and was MOTM. Outrageous talent.

The most amazing thing is he has had both knees rebuilt, a broken ankle and a broken jaw in the last 3 years, so much commitment

It is very probably true, but it is a unfair comparison, any team that could have a total selection of players would be hard to beat, thats why we have a salary cap, so we dont end up with "a Wigan scenario" again.
How much over the salary cap would say the england squad be, it would probably win SL aswell.
What it goes to show is that there is a lot of talent outside the NRL.

Can't be right, can it ? I thought franchising and expansion were to go along way in improving our game

I was watching some footage of the 1990/92 Lions sides the other day and I'm afraid we have gone backwards. Fitter and stronger maybe but nowhere near the skill, awareness and understanding of the game they had. It was only fitness that stopped us winning one of those IMO, now we are obsessed with fitness over all else whilst the Aussies have moved on.