cheers fosties i knew you'd know,although the image doesn't open for the fixture format

That's a really costly loss for Wigan tonight. We've got a chance of pretty much ending their top 4 chances next week when we go there. They'll need to be much much better than they were tonight because they were very poor.

You'll beat us easily. Scoreline might be close but the game won't be! Leeds are still my bet for a SL and CC double.

Guaranteed 2nd place now (congrats Lioner 81

) so fixtures we get are

Home vs 3rd - 4th - 6th -7th
Away vs 1st - 5th - 8th

Cas away is now guaranteed, other positions tbd but a if we beat Wigan away next week we'd condemn them to 8th spot and book another away trip to the DW.

Wouldn't ever wish us getting beat but next week we'd be better for it. We've got 2nd in the bag so rest a few players for the semi final. Warrington win, Wigan win, Hull FC win, Salford win, St Helens win, Castleford win.

Looks much better in the eights with:
Home - Salford, St Helens, Hull FC, Wigan.
Away - Castleford, Huddersfield, Wakefield.

Than:
Home - Salford, Wakefield, Huddersfield, St Helens.
Away - Castleford, Hull FC, Wigan.

Fancy Wakey to beat Saints and think with one eye of the SF that Hull could slip up at home vs Hudds which would then leave

Home - Salford (3rd) Wakey (4th) Hudds (6th) Saints (7th)
Away - Cas (1st) Hull (5th) Wigan (8th)

Thing is with a win away to Wigan next week we reach 32 points which would put us one foot into the playoffs before the 8's start imo. Think we'd only need to win 3 of our 8's fixtures then to get 2nd spot which I think could be achieved with 38 points.

Despite thinking we'd finish 6th at the start of the year & our best chance of silverware being the CC i now don't fear any of the other teams in the top 8.
Of course Wigan away is ALWAYS a tough game for us & we haven't looked like beating Cas all year but i think we should have enough to now secure 2nd then it's anybodies & no-one knows how Cas will handle it.

Agreed mark i thought the same, but like you say we are in the mix and there is nobody to fear.

I feel we have as good a chance as any of winning SL now and i include Cas in that who are the team to beat.would love it if it was a GF us and them.

I think the next 4 games are key to where we finish starting with Wigan next week

If we get to the CC Final we know our record is not good afterwards. In the 7 regular games after the 14 & 15 finals we only won one of those and that was the last second try by Hall against Hudds.

I think given their position wigan could throw everything at the cup.
I said before the Q/F's the two who reach the final will struggle to reach the GF. I still think that.
having said that I think we have a great chance of winning one or the other.
sneaky feeling hull could do us but we win the GF. i'd take either though

I thought the same about whoever reaches the CC final will struggle to reach the GF mostly because of losing league games post Wembley. But now we've opened up a 4 point gap in 2nd, if we can expend that to 6pts maybe even 8pts before Wembley (IF we get there which is most certainly far from a given) that would provide some breathing room post Wembley.

If we were to face the likes of Salford and Wakey pre Wembley that would help.

Interestingly now I think if Hull win the semi final they might miss out on a playoff spot. Currently out of the top 4 ATM and 6 losses in their last 9 league games. They equally struggled post Wembley as we did in the 2 previous years.

Wigan are clinging on by their fingernails, Saints away form is woeful......so Wakefield should really fancy their chances imo of getting a playoff spot.