Don't be fooled by 'Keith' - he is a Leeds supporter and also the most seasoned and subtle troll to frequent these boards.

Just take what he says with a large pinch of salt and don't let him get under your skin.

I am also optimistic for next year. They key factor for me will be the effect the new coaching set up has on the team. Last season I felt we didn't play well as a team and went backwords in our team skills and tactics. IMO we finished higher in the league than our form deserved and that top three finish was down to some outstanding individual work by a certain few players, Danny McGuire in particular, rather than the overall team performance.

So I an expecting (hoping) the new coaches to overcome the loss of the injured stars by concentrating on the regaining the team skills with good backing up and offloading and having a better tactical game plan.

The addition of a fit again DM and JP in mid/late summer will give a huge boost and be like two new star signings. Also Sinfield will have had a good rest for the first time in many years and if he plays at 6 for the first half season, which I expect, he will have had less tackling to do and his attacking flair will be all the sharper for it.

I agree, I felt for alot of last season we were playing without any real structure or purpose and were mostly relying on the likes of McGuire's individual brilliance to win matches. We know we have the quality available, it's just getting everyone firing together. I Reckon if we can get back to basics and start playing as a proper team with attacking lines and defensive structure, we have more than enough quality to make it successful.

I agree last year we did seem to rely on individual brilliance with the odd game appearing to all gel. I am excited regarding the new season but looking forward to boxing day for the first glimpse of possible new structures play etc

i'm going for a regular season sl table finish of
1:wigan
2:saints
3:warrington
4:rhinos
5:huddersfield
6:hull fc
7:hull kr
8:bulls
9:castleford
10:salford
11:catalans
12:crusaders
13:wakefield
14:quins

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

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

Because we will be playing the first half of the season minus two key players I predict the regular season's table to end up like this..

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

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

I think we will do better than Warrington and will be contesting closely for 2nd.

1-Warriors
2-Saints
3-Rhinos
4-Wolves
5-Giants
6-Hull FC
7-Hull KR
8-Bulls
9-Reds
10-Dragons
11-Tigers
12-Crusaders
13-Wildcats
14-Quins

All this talk of a possible 4th finish got me thinking about this pre-season thread.

I don't think I could have been more wrong if I tried.

Can't believe this hasn't been done yet.



Amateurs, the lot of you.

Regular season now over, it's time for the results.

First of all the ground rules:

1) All entries must contain 14 unique and/or clearly identifiable teams

2) Scoring System: Correct position scores 0, 1 away from correct position scores 1, 2 away scores 2 etc

The aim is to achieve the lowest score

3) In case of a tie:

Tie-Breaker 1 = Most correct positions
Tie-Breaker 2 = Re-score only using the top eight

__________

Assuming everyone is happy (if not please add your comments) I'll score the entries in the morning and all being well post the final table around lunch-time.

Based on tvoc's scoring system, I score myself at 20. No idea whether that's any good or not.

I was miles out with Catalans (I had them 11th, scoring a massive 4 points!) but everyone else I was 2 places out max.

Looking forward to seeing the results. Only Billy Rhino had Wire 1st so top marks to him for that! He got the Top 8 right too! (As did Swiftcorn!)

Also, interestingly, most people got 7 of the top 8 right, and of those, it was almost always Catalans that people got wrong. Wigan, Wire, Saints, Hudds, Leeds, and the Hull clubs made it into MOST top 8s with lots of people wrongly predicting Salford or Bradford as the 8th team.