Wigan
St Helens
Warrington
Huddersfield
Leeds
Hull FC
Hull KR
Bradford
Salford
Catalans
Castleford
Crusaders
Wakefield
Harlequins

Wigan
Warrington
Saints
Leeds
Bradford
Hull
Huddersfield
HKR
Castleford
Catalans
Salford
Wakefield
Quins
Crusaders

That's why I put them in bottom place.

1.Stains
2 Hull
3 Leeds
4 Wigan
5 Bulls
6 Warrington
7 Catalans
8 Huddersfield
9 Hull KR
10 Castleford
11 Harlequins
12 Salford
13 Wakefield
14 Crusaders.

why are people, yet again, tipping shudds for a top 2/3 finish? nowhere near as leeds,saints or wigan over the course of a season for me

I put Huddersfield down as 4th, but pretty confident they will finish above Leeds. It's hardly nowhere near tad. We only finsished above them on the last game of the season just gone, and Huddersfield look like they have improved massively for next year, where the same can no be said about Leeds.

I tip Huddersfield to finish 4th (which is ahead of Leeds) next season as I believe they are a slight improvement on last years squad they had. They also have a good coach. Leeds by comparison now have a bunch of jokers in charge.

I'm also factoring in the additional experience of six Huddersfield players in the England Four Nations squad down under who all performed far better under McNamara than seven Leeds players did under Tony Smith in 2008 when they collectively shamed us all.

Eorl Crabtree's really good too.

Hudders have a settled side and coach and have recruited quite well. Barring a massive injury crisis they should be good for top 5. Leeds suffered from injury a lot last year but that looks set to continue in the early part of the season too add to that a new coaching set up and I think Leeds will finish 5th.

I was going to ignore this for the tosh that it is, but I couldn't resist the bait in the second paragraph...



You're right... the 6 Huddersfield players will no doubt be much much better at White Water Rafting & rock climbing compared to our Leeds lads who sadly missed out on the "experience" of the trip.

And you're right... It's not like our boys gained any experience from '08 is it (like, say maybe, enough experience to go on the succeeding year to top the league, score over 800 points, only lose 6 games, finish 4 points clear of second, and win the Grand Final).


Huddersfield may well finish above us next year (to some extent I do agree), I just wonder why you bother. If following Leeds brings you such discomfort and angst, do us all a favour and don't bother.

Wigan
Saints
Leeds
Wire
Hudds
Bradford
Hull FC
Hull KR
Castleford
Salford
Harlequins
Wakefield
Catalans
Crusaders

Whilst the opinons re-Giants having a settled side and have improved ring true imo people are still underestimating our squad.
It's a huge blow to be missing JP and Mags but we do have a full pre-season to prepare without them.
Smith will have a proper off season break and get back into RL conditioning ,the return of Bjb and Watkins is a bonus imo and the arrivals of Cross and Hauraki will add depth and allow us to rotate more injuries permitting.
We also have the added bonus of only having 1 player away for the 4 nations and we don't have to prepare for a WCC.
I'm happy that most are tipping against us because the wins will be so much sweeter.