Good to see Lewis penalised last night for gobbing off. More of that would be welcomed, both for him and in general. 


On a wider point, the Sky love in with HKR is becoming unbearable. They are a very good side, of course, but they were playing a Cas side that seemed determined to beat themselves. The punditry last night was such that it's doubtful that the 82 Kangaroos would have stood much of a chance against them. 

And that's why we should be very cautious about moving to 14 teams. I know 13 home games against different teams would be a big tick in the box for supporters (including me) but the novelty would soon wear off if 4 of those games were 40 or 50 point blow outs. Personally I think that if you want to raise standards you actually lower the current number of participating teams, to 11, which would provide a 21 game SL including a magic round. You could add another 3 home games by incorporating another Cup Comp (early season) perhaps on a conference basis, with championship clubs included, which would be free to season ticket holders.

I hear you.. it's certainly a tricky situation the game finds itself in mate. 

Not sure what it is about our game but Cup comps just don`t seem to float the supporters boat.
Even CC games are badly attended these days with supporters me included prepared to watch on TV and grimace listening to Davies, Kear and Noble.
I still think the way to go is a 14 team comp with mergers.
First team plays in SL and second team plays in the Championship.
Be interesting to hear thoughts on which teams could merge but I bet you would have some pretty competitive teams whilst others I know would disappear into oblivion.

14 teams is undoubtedly the ideal number, and it looks like that's what we are going to get next year. The question- is are the 12 SL teams who are currently in receipt of the Broadcasting money going to give up % of their slice of the cake? The answer is - not on your Nelly! So the 2 teams (maybe even 3) who do come up are going to have to fund themselves. I forsee a competition featuring yet more miss matches,  flooded with with overseas players who'll never have a hope of appearing in the NRL, thereby limiting production of our own talent. I would love to be wrong about that, but I don’t think I will be.