Cas 9th or 10th

Castleford will IMO finish out of the play off positions mainly due to the back up strength of their squad

Probably 9th would be my bet, But i think that Cas will play a very entertaining and expansive style of rugby under Basil

I am looking forward to watching Daryl Clarke this season as this kid's gonna rip defenses to bits, he will be a strong candidate for young player of the year in 2012

As usual, I can see little middle ground. I can conceive a 1999 style run where Basil pushes all the buttons, injuries are kind and we genuinely make 6th.

Similarly, I can see a poor start, with quality missing from the first few weeks and us then rushing players back, ultimately damaging them further and our support goes feral and we have a stinker.

I would love the former, dread the latter, I do worry about our fans sometimes, we got away with it last season becuase the start was so good, but I have seen a lot of times that if the gravy isnt flowing early season, corwd gets a neg on, Basil will be crap, Squad will be poor, usual set of moans and doesnt help anyone.

My only hope is that we get a home atmoshere, win or lose and people go away from our ground thinking that our supporters rock and whatever happens we are loyal to our team.

We will not rush players back mdean. We could have done that already but we haven't. We are getting injuries right for the benefit of the long term, hence why so many have been having surgery done etc.

Yeah, I agree right now we are not - but I can foresee thin patience from the watching masses if a couple of things go against us early doors.

I hope we do the right things for the long term.

Wire to be minor premiers.
Leeds, Saints, Wigan to make up the top 4.
Hull, Catalans, Huddersfield to make the play offs.
Cas, Hull KR, London, Bradford to contest 8th spot.
Wakefield, then Salford.
Widnes bottom.

Agree with your top 4 Stu - no argument.

I dont fancy London, or oddly Catalan this year to be honest. Widnes are likely to struggle, nothing personal, I like going there so it is not with glee I say that, even though they had plenty time to plan.

Salford, Wakey, Hull KR, Bradford, Hull, Us - all have the potnential to make something happen or massively under achieve.

If Salford get something going at their new stadium - they could be in a position lots of people dont expect. Similarly other effect could happen - bad start and the same crowds as the old stadium in the new and that won't be great watching.

Whatever happens, I just cant wait for some actual competition to start!

Was just trawling your forum to see what other sthought of Salford.

Not too many changes to our squad, but if Moon can provide some spark from the centre channel, he's got to be a better defender than Ratchford, so there's an improvement. Jordan James is a better defender than Cashmere, but I don't see him making as many yards. Then there's all the younger forwards, who need to start producing a good match more than once or twice a season. Jewitt and Sidlow have something special, but they need to add some consistency and hardwork. Finally we have Feka and Vinnie Anderson, two players that can really make a team spark, but were well off the pace most of last season.

I think you're right about the group that has the potential to go either way! Knowing Salford we'll be the team that doesn't produce.

I think wakey and cas will finish around the 8/9 position, they are 2 very similar teams in terms of playing strengths and weaknesses. Maybe with cas having the slightly stonger squad - due to the fact they have recruited and retained players whereas wakey had the administration issues last year and lost players / recruited on a shoestring budget.

One thing for sure is the game sunday will give both coaches are where they need to be. i'd liike to see us both going well and maybe both sneaking into the playoffs!!!

I thought Glover was ensuring you spent the full salary cap?

I believe their intention is to do it in stages (i.e. £1.3m this season, £1.4m next season with a view to go to full cap in year 3 of the licence).

Sorry if I offend, and I'm only going off Cas's early season form in 2011, but I think Cas have the better first choice squad. Wakey no doubt have more quality in their ranks this season, but I'm not convinced Agar can pull them together. I fear Widnes, Wakey, Salford and London (if they get a few injuries) could be in for a long and not so pleasant season.

I could be wrong, usually I am, but the rest of SL has better strength in depth. Then again Outside the top 3 many teams are looking short on quality, outside of their first seventeen. At Salford I can only think of two/three backs to call on with SL experience, if we get any injuries. Not so bad in the forwards, but the first seventeen still needs to prove themselves.

Interesting, Widnes were also making lots of noise about spending the full cap only to back out of it.

Perhaps Widnes's is more a reason of the right players not being available for the squad rather than signing just anybody?

I think the Vikings, to an extent, were perhaps hoping to sign a big-name player and still are leaving the space for such marquee signings?

I'll go with

1. Leeds
2. Saints
3. Wire
4. Wigan
5. Hull FC
6. Catalans
7. Huddersfield
8. Castleford
9. Bradford
10. Wakefield
11. Hull KR
12. London
13. Widnes
14. Salford

At least that's what I posted on our (Leeds') board a few weeks back. If I'd known HKR would lose Green before the season started I might have put them lower.