Strangely, perhaps, I think Wane's the most vulnerable of them all. The limitations of his guile-free systems are now fully exposed and the Wigan club are the most psychologically disrupted by Leeds' supremacy.

I do agree that a fair few Wigan fans would be a bit disgruntled by a poor showing this year if it happens, they normally are if they aint winning silverware, but it's hard to argue that Wane hasn't got enough credit in the bank to be able to survive the chop off an average season. He has a double from 2013, 3 consecutive GF appearances and almost snatching top spot last year until the last play of the regular season to point to and all that with a squad that wasn't the best in the league going in imo.Ironically, bringing Tomkins back on the assumption he is the same player he was when he left (which i don't think he is, but we will see) could be his eventual undoing if it goes t@ts up, with expectations high.

1. Wigan under-achieved last year. Too many games where they just didnt fire, especially away. Its odd for them because over the last few years they have been the best in SL at just grinding out results. If they dont have a good year this year, Wane's position will become very precarious. Return of Tomkins will be a spark, just dont know how much

2. Leeds, lost Peacock, Kylie, Sinfield and Aiton, but Falloon is a fine replacement, Galloway, Garbutt, Ferres, Mullally leave us possibly with a better pack even if we have lost a great individual player. Sutcliffe has big shoes to fill, but Burrow and Mcguire are still there and the outside backs are still as good as ever

3. Warrington Pressure is on T-S, seems to have taken Warrington backwards over the last couple of years. I said last year that they reminded me of Leeds in 2006 so i think they will kick on. DOnt think they are good enough to win anything though
4.Hudds, another year on Broughs legs, another year they will ground out results. Rapira is rocks and diamonds, Hinchcliffe solid if unspectacular.

5. St Helens, Were up and down last year and got worse as they went on. Had severe defensive issues and their halves were anonymous at times, notably terrible at others. Think Josh Jones was a good youngster, and they will miss Masoe's impact even if it does tighten them up a bit. Peyreaux is decent not great, Fages is a work in progress and neither Owens nor Tasi have set SL on fire.

6. Les Catalans The unknown quantity. Overloaded in the backs, Myler and Carney if they click will be comfortably the best halfback partnership in SL, Horo and Stewart will go well. If Dave Taylors head is on he will tear super league up, if he is there for the food and wine, he will be an expensive player to carry. Have done the best business this off season imo. They will miss Taia and Whitehead, Henderson was as smart player too, and Garcia is a great young talent, but they have also dropped the hugely disappointing Tonga, Dureau and Oldfield

7. Castleford-they have over-achieved over the last few years, Powell has done brilliantly to find some rough diamonds, and built something bigger than the sum of its parts. But its a policy with diminishing returns. Think this season might be the one that might catch up with them a bit.

8. Salford the exact opposite of Cas, have conspired to disappoint, underachieve and be less than the sum of their parts over the last few years. However, they have shipped out some clearly bad influences and have a more balanced squad in my opinion. They are good enough to make the 8 as long as they dont self-destruct, though there is no guarantee of that.

9. Hull FC decent squad, poor coach, too old, not enough depth. Will flatter to deceive, suffer a huge injury crisis, drop out of the 8 then destroy the sides in the middle 8s

10. Wakefield, far better than last year, have a little something to prove, but still arent very good. Will be desperate not to finish bottom. Will start off like a house on fire and surprise a few people, will look for a while like they will make 8. Wont. Will go in to the middle 8s in poor form and will play the million pound game again.

11. Widnes just don't seem to be going anywhere. Average players, average players brought in

12 Hull KR Another odd one. They can be a very exciting side going forward, lots of speed and talent. Can also be atrocious, if Chester sorts out their consistency they could even get in the 8, if he doesnt they will struggle hugely. A lot depends on Campese (who is made of tissue) and Kelly (who if rumours are to be believed has hardly had the best off-season) but the squad looks light on experience, light on quality and if injuries bite, i think they will really struggle.

Quote: ThePrinter "To coincide with the predictions for 2016 thread (but leaving that solely for predictions and not clutter it up). What are the views on all (or some) of our rivals chances this year? WIGAN - again will present the biggest challenge. Whilst Bowen did well at times he obviously wasn't Sam Tomkins and that could be the difference between getting them over the line but will Tomkins be the same guy that left after his knee issues. Will be interesting to see if he and Williams work well together or Tomkins' reintroduction as the star of the show impacts on Williams. They lack in a big metre making prop and in centres IMO but they have a style that still works at the DW. Their chances of success though will rely on improving when away from home though as that really let them down in 2015. '" Both Gelling and Sarginson made big metres (over 2,200) last season, but suffered injuries www.superleague.co.uk/matchday/player/20446 www.superleague.co.uk/matchday/player/11190 The team I think will improve most this season is Catalan. IF they can get to 8 away wins they could be real threat. Getting and keeping Carney fit is a must for them, if they do we'll all have problems.

Quote: ThePrinter "To coincide with the predictions for 2016 thread (but leaving that solely for predictions and not clutter it up). What are the views on all (or some) of our rivals chances this year? WIGAN - again will present the biggest challenge. Whilst Bowen did well at times he obviously wasn't Sam Tomkins and that could be the difference between getting them over the line but will Tomkins be the same guy that left after his knee issues. Will be interesting to see if he and Williams work well together or Tomkins' reintroduction as the star of the show impacts on Williams. They lack in a big metre making prop and in centres IMO but they have a style that still works at the DW. Their chances of success though will rely on improving when away from home though as that really let them down in 2015. '" Both Gelling and Sarginson made big metres (over 2,200) last season, but suffered injuries www.superleague.co.uk/matchday/player/20446 www.superleague.co.uk/matchday/player/11190 The team I think will improve most this season is Catalan. IF they can get to 8 away wins they could be real threat. Getting and keeping Carney fit is a must for them, if they do we'll all have problems.

Yes and that's to be expected given how many carries Wigan give their centres, doesn't mean you couldn't do with a stronger signing in that department if that's your go to area for a lot of your metres.

And their numbers allude to Wigan's problem for me. Those two centres played 18 & 19 games respectively yet still made a couple of hundred metres more than your leading prop Mossop who played 26 games.

We managed to get over 3,000 metres from Watkins but Peacock and Cuthbertson both made more. Walmsley over 4,000 at Saints and Hill over 3,700 at Warrington and the most a Wigan prop could do is just over 2,000.

Possibly why the away record was so poor last year that you arguably need to do the hard yards down the middle more away from home and can't get away with spreading it wide to the centres as much as you can at home. Not just whether it's home or away but other factors such as weather and opposition should really see more games when your props give you more metres. A Walmsley or Hill eating up metres in your side in the GF in that 2nd half when our middle were clinging on by their fingernails and that might've seen us off and the trophy go to Wigan.

www.superleague.co.uk/stats/club_stats some interesting reading on there many seem to right fc off, which people are entitled too, im not expecting top 4, would be great but 6th is achievable, second to leeds in a few areas such as metres made and average gains and amongst the top clubs in other areas, quite clearly our problem last season was scoring tries! solve that and we may suprise a few

www.superleague.co.uk/stats/club_stats some interesting reading on there many seem to right fc off, which people are entitled too, im not expecting top 4, would be great but 6th is achievable, second to leeds in a few areas such as metres made and average gains and amongst the top clubs in other areas, quite clearly our problem last season was scoring tries! solve that and we may suprise a few

I think we might be the team that could go either way.
The key changes in players and the positions/ rolls they took in the team need to be filled.
Who will replace Peacock as pack leader ? Who will replace Sinfield's kicking / organization / leadership ? .
How will Sutcliffe / Ward /jjb go after their respective injuries?.
Will McGuire step up more ? Etc etc.

If we get it right early and the confidence grows we could do very well,if we struggle at HB or poor 5th tackle options etc we could have a bit of a rough time.

The additions we signed have all been spot on (on paper) and filled the holes as best as we could hope for and we seem to have more depth and have imo a player to lose in Achurch.

Wigan will be less interesting,their grind it out mentality will work as it always does at home where penalty counts tend to be higher but can Samkins win the away / tough games for them ? How will he go after injury and the NRL failure? He will want to prove he's still a top player and I'd expect nothing less.

Still can't see Wigan getting top spot tho.

Problem is a potential trade off. Whilst at Leeds we racked up points and improved our attack massively from what it was in 2014, we shipped in 219 more points in defence last year compared to 2014 when we had the leanest defence (granted 3 more league games in 2015).

Leeds clearly dedicated a lot of time and effort into improving their attack and the defence took a bit of a hit. What will be interesting to see this year if any coaches have watched Leeds last year and it's caught on and they've decided to loosen the shackles in attack a bit.

I dont see our defence a problem, only 3 games last season, 1 in the super 8s, where we were well beaten

Scoring tries has been our downfall for the last couple of seasons, mainly due to radfords safe rugby gameplan, we need to play like we did in the 8s where we were played some entertaining stuff

I would agree with you, i didn't watch Hull a whole lot last year but when i did you didn't feel like a try was around the corner even when the team got repeat sets in the opposition 25.

For me, Castleford have shown the way for the less fancied sides in how playing an attractive, fearless brand of rugby can pay off.

It's not just whether they want to loosen the shackles, it's whether they have the personnel able to do that. Catalans do. Maybe Wire if Sandow isn't too flaky. But I don't see too many teams who look obvious candidates to play heads-up rugby.

I think hull could do some damage if halves can play well. Like young Logan in the centre and the pack, particularly back row has loads of options. If ellis stays fit he may give them a peacock type leader to follow. I think Pritchard will be a nightmare for rest of the league ( but I can't tip rubbish) Key man could be how young abdull develops and where he plays.

If Pryce starts off poorly expect Abdul to step in, hopefully we will also see a trimmed down Abdul too

I hear Kim Kardashian is jealous

Is Pryce still on top Dollar? needs to start stepping up if he is