FORMER Warrington Wolves and Leeds Rhinos star Blake Austin has called for Super League to “get with the times” and shrink to ten teams.

The northern hemisphere’s most prized competition is instead expanding from 12 to 14 next season as Bradford Bulls, Toulouse Olympique and York Knights come in and Salford Red Devils make way.

There have been fears of the player pool being diluted, as well as central distribution being split between more clubs.

And Austin, who won the 2019 Challenge Cup with Warrington in the first of his five seasons in England and represented Great Britain on that year’s tour down under, believes that there should be fewer, not more, teams in the top flight.

On What’s The Message Pod with Bradford Bulls player Ronan Michael, Austin – who also had a loan spell with Castleford Tigers said: “I think there’s too many teams. I’d go smaller and I’d get better.

“Lock in your eight, I reckon ten maximum. Lock them in and then you get two or three extra from a team out of the Championship to come up and you start getting a better balance.”

Austin added: “You’re going to say you’ve done a lot for our sport and thank you very much, but from hereon out you’re going to play in the Championship comp and the only trophy you’ll ever be able to win is a Championship trophy.

“The Super League is for the big boys. We’ll take some of your good players every now and then and give them a chance to play on the big stage but otherwise you’ll just be a smaller community club and you’ll keep producing players.

“Unfortunately, that’s the way the game has to be. There’ll be a few 70 or 80-year-old blokes backing Keighley and clubs like that for a long time but sadly, we’ve got to get with the times.”