THE rugby league talent pool is not yet spread as thin as a boarding house scrape of butter but, with 16 teams, the salary cap and the constant nibbling of English clubs and rugby union, good players have a long way to stretch.

With clubs at full strength you mightn't notice the change; throw in some suspensions and the inevitable injuries and the impact is profound.

Consider tonight's match-up between the Dragons and the Knights, the No.1-rated game of the round. A year ago, the average league fan could have taken up residence in front of the television, with the comfort of familiarity, to watch players whose quality had made them fixtures in the firmament rather than shooting stars of short shelf life.

In some endeavours, familiarity is said to breed contempt - not in rugby league, where it leads to respect and admiration. Between them, there's little Matt Gidley, Andrew Johns, Danny Buderus, Mark Gasnier, Trent Barrett, Luke Bailey and Shaun Timmins hadn't achieved in football. When the Dragons pasted the Knights 38-12 in Newcastle last May, all seven were on duty, all counting their NRL appearances in the hundreds at least. Gidley, Johns and Timmins had managed more than 200 first-grade games each.

They'd won grand finals, State of Origins. Newcastle boasted 80 Test caps, St George Illawarra 31. If you were picking a scratch NSW or Australian team, you could have started with those seven and then gone looking for looking for others to fill the holes.

Tonight, however, none will play. Gidley and Barrett are in England, Timmins has retired, Bailey is one of the Gold Coast Titans foundation co-captains, Buderus is suspended and Johns and Gasnier are injured.

But for seven out, come seven in, standard-bearers for a whole new generation - some of them kids so fresh they didn't even make their own club's media guide for the season. Last week, the Dragons unveiled four new faces fresh off the production line - Richie Williams, Dan Hunt, Keith Lulia and Josh Morris - plus four more playing their first game in the famous red V.

The Knights have had the same makeover, with two debutants - Terence Seu Seu and James McManus - starting in the narrow win over the Bulldogs last Sunday, while tonight it's Cory Paterson's turn to play his first NRL match. Unless you're a fan of premier league or Jersey Flegg, it might be time to buy a program guide.

McManus, born in the Scottish highlands and raised in the Northern Territory, had his haggis massaged last Sunday when he made his first run and found himself in the welcoming embrace of Willie Mason. As he dusted himself off, the winger consoled himself with the thought the rest of his career should get easier.

"I'm definitely not as nervous going into this game," McManus said yesterday. "You put so much pressure on yourself, most of it unnecessary pressure, for your debut. It's not just been coming the last few years, it's something you've dreamt of since you were a kid."

All the fresh faces have their own personal stories of arrival, but McManus says they share something in common that spectators should notice. "There'll be a lot of energy in the game. I think all the young guys come with a lot of enthusiasm. We're all jumping out of our skins to get our careers up and running," he said.

"I think it's a changing of the guard in the NRL. There's a lot of new players coming through in every team. It's a good mix to have - experience and youth. We play with a lot of exuberance and we're a bit flashy sometimes. The older guys seem to settle us down and get us into how we need to be playing the game."

It would take a stun gun to settle down youngsters such as Williams, the 20-year-old Dragons five-eighth who scored two tries and laid on another for fellow debutant Lulia, himself only 19.

Coach Nathan Brown doesn't own that sort of a weapon - but will be endeavouring to strike a balance between confidence and experience as he guides his charges into the NRL. A spell in premier league may be the most powerful tool in his arsenal but one which he would have to use sparingly, given the hits the club's playing roster has already taken.

Max Ninnis, a Dragons coaching assistant closely involved in junior development, describes the youngsters as "projects" at the moment - just as Ben Creagh (68 games), Justin Poore (70) and Ashton Sims (70) were a few years ago.

"With every game you play, the experience you get is worth a lot to the player," Ninnis said. "If they've gone over their video and listened to the coaches, they'll all be a little bit better for the experience. Hopefully you can overcome some of the things they didn't do so well in the last game. It's a progression that goes on each week."

The seemingly bottomless well of talent the St George Illawarra side seems able to tap is no accident. Hunt, only 20, is from Dapto. Morris, also 20, is a Kiama boy and Lulia is from Port Kembla. "Some clubs can do it," said Ninnis, who reckons the key is in the system of coaching to add the skills to "big, athletic players", hopefully already possessing the requisite level of tenacity. "We always pride ourselves in what we teach them."

The challenge to improve extends to the oldest player on the field, Simon Woolford, who turns 32 next month. Also the most experienced, with 234 matches, the hooker's club debut last weekend was lost among the fuss over the new kids.

"It's probably a little bit weird for most Dragons and Knights fans to see a host of stars missing but, for both teams, there's probably a couple playing who are future stars in the making," he observed.

"Careers come to an end and even the superstars have to finish up some time. Fans should be positive about the new guys coming through. As much as they'd like to see a Joey or a Gaz play for 20 years, they realise it's just not possible. I don't know if it's a changing of the guard yet - but there's a certainly a crop of youngsters coming through ready to take over."