Dave Craven: Essential World Cup provides a lift after depressing survey

IT DID not paint a pretty picture did it?

More than a third of Super League players admitting to dealing with depression, three-quarters conceding their heads have been turned by the greater financial opportunities in the NRL and rugby union with only a miserly three per cent having any faith in the way the game is marketed here.

I am not always a big fan of polls and surveys given the way in which their results can be manipulated, misread and misconstrued all too easily.

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But the one conducted by players’ association 1eague3, in conjunction with Rugby League World, drew responses from over 150 different Super League players, almost half the competition. It is, then, fair to say that if 75 per cent admit to being tempted to leave Super League, the sport here really does need to sit up and take notice.

For too long, the opinions sought when it comes to rugby league have been from the wrong source.

It is the players, more than anyone else, who essentially make the sport the attraction it is and it is frustrating to think they have not had more say in how it is run, played and operated.

The danger is that many of Super League’s stars will depart and not necessarily only the stellar names either.

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Sam Burgess was certainly a world-class act when he left Bradford Bulls for South Sydney at the end of 2009.

But even Luke Burgess’s biggest fan must have thought, briefly at least, that he was signed by the Rabbitohs later on mainly just to help his younger brother feel closer to home.

He was always a fine squad player at Leeds Rhinos but never a regular starter so why would he be so coveted by the NRL?

Yet the eldest of the Burgess siblings has gone over there and more than proved his worth, truly establishing himself as a Souths regular on merit. If he can find such success why not others?

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With such an abundance of cash in the NRL – clubs have more than double the salary cap to spend than in Super League – the Australian competition will be licking its lips even further at the outcome of this survey.

The only way to keep them at bay is to increase the cap here from its current level of £1.65m.

In essence, one of the main reasons it was established was to stop clubs spending more than they could afford but the reality is that has not been the case.

Only this week, Wakefield Trinity Wildcats’ new chairman, Michael Carter, readily conceded his club had paid inflated salaries for some players. So many clubs do not actually get anywhere near spending the full cap and still stretch themselves too far.

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You have to feel some sympathy for Trinity; as there are so few quality players on the market, they no doubt felt pressure to get someone on board and, inevitably, if they had not offered those exaggerated terms, realised some other similar-sized club would have done so regardless.

There is arguably not enough quality as it is – hence the dropping to a 12-club Super League – and the competition is in real danger of losing more.

The salary cap also hoped to ‘level out’ the competition but the status quo has remained; traditional giants Leeds, Wigan, Warrington and St Helens all remain as leading forces.

Such clubs, who clearly have wealth behind them, should not be restrained from keeping major talent.

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If the cap is not raised considerably, clubs should at least have dispensations to sign two or three marquee players on whatever wages they decree.

All of this, though, masks the real problem: not enough money is being brought into the game.

It is, then, more imperative than ever that this forthcoming World Cup is a success, played out in front of a national TV audience and having the chance to attract a wide range of new investors.

For once, statistics do not lie; the sport is in real need of fresh impetus.

The players themselves say so. Who are we to argue?