It's pretty much academic whether Super league teams could match NRL teams. The world club challenge is run in our preseason when the NRL premiers are basically still playing trials, but it's a reasonable number of games into the SL season. Unless we had some crossover games when both seasons were underway it's nearly impossible to judge the comparative quality of the two competitions.
I'm happy for Martin to be doing well. The simple fact of our roster situation is that we have a lot of NRL capable second rowers. It was going to be difficult to establish himself here. Over there he's standing out already. I thought he was a pretty decent player for us when given the opportunity. But he was at a similar level as quite a few others. If he gets a decent payday and furthers his career, good on him. He's not a youngster anymore. He was a late debutante in the NRL and I can understand that he'd possibly want to make a mark at the elite level overseas if he's not getting the opportunity to make it here.
