It’s undeniable that the playing talent isn’t currently sufficient to support a 14 team top flight league, but it’s the absolute minimum that the RFL should be striving for in my opinion. The tried & tested systems for RL have failed miserably & it’s time to think radically or the game is done.
Ive said this before, but still feel it’s the only solution - remove all of the junior/academy aspect of RL from individual clubs. The RFL should run regionalised academies with each set up having the same state of the art facilities. Every employee should work for, & be paid by, the RFL with scope to change/move people around on secondments to prevent any one area falling drastically behind in the aim of producing future professional RL players.
The next phase would be a draft type system to ensure an equal distribution, as is possible, of the emerging talent.
Obviously this would require some clubs to give up their self interest, but as we’ve seen with the IMG proposals this is possible. This isn’t a guaranteed fix for all RL’s problems, but it would do away with a lot of what so many people think is wrong with the game. The only real problem I see is that I wouldn’t trust the current people at the RFL to not make a complete hash of it!

That sounds much too sensible Steady.Don't they do something similar in Aussie?

Aus have RL academy schools like Keebra park that just churn out NRL talent from all over Aus and NZ. We’ll never compete with the NRL, I believe Penrith have a bigger junior system than the entire SL.

It's all about numbers and the quality of coaching. We're lacking in both.

I think a lot of it relates to how the sports is perceived in any specific country.

Not only aren't there player numbers for a 14 team league (you could argue there aren't enough for a decent 12 team league) there just isn't the money to fund it either. There isn't a TV deal in position for any division next year as it stands and it is widely expected that any deal signed will be a short term one on the same terms at very best the but more likely slightly less. The IMG proposals aim to reverse that trend moving forward but it won't happen on a 'what might be', it is looking down the track and aiming to increase monies down the line when things have hopefully improved. 14 teams might be the longer term goal and i hope it is but right now it's just not possible.