To be fair mate FC are more expected to be challenging more than Cas are Powell has stripped that Team/Squad down & rebuilt it into a table topping side easily playing the best RL this year.
Thus far FC have repeated what they did last year & like i said its hardly unexpected.

Performance wise ST's have been on a downward spiral since winning the GF imo.
Have Wigans injuries been worse than they had last year they were winning games on a regular basis with 8/9/10 players missing?
Cas are still playing their same style just getting better results with an obvious better squad.
Wrt Wire their demise imo is as much down to TS staying too long & their inability to pick a settled 6/7 as anything else.

Grizzly Bri by plenty.

Saints I agree with have been on a downward spiral since 2014 (2013 they struggled tbf) but no real difference from last year.

I think Wigan's injuries have been a bit worse this year and even if you factor in us taking Wite's place then teams like Wakey and Salford had taken advantage so in a way better than 2016.

I can understand and agree with the argument that the standard or game isn't as good as it was say back in 2007 or back when we won in 2004, but to suggest a significant difference between 2016 and 2017 is really pushing it

From my own pov ive enjoyed less games this year that dont involve Leeds than last & i used to watch or record every televised game.
I also dont rate this top 8 structure it should be a top 5/6 imo with the Team finishing bottom relegated & 2nd bottom in the million pound game v the 2nd top championship team.
Id like the magic W/E to either kick the season off or be the week before as a 9's comp.

A 9s competition has to be announced soon. Its absolutely mental that we don't already have one. Although not surprising given the pathetic incompentant people in change at the RFL.