Difficult one this.

Wane does have a hard job with their turnover of players but Wigan do seem to have a realistic view to things at the moment. Plus there is little sense sacking a coach in the last year of his contract unless the team goes into melt down.

Millward at Cas is a good shout, you would think Cas should be far better this year but Ian could be in trouble if they do not improve.

Coming from left field maybe Humberside is a good place to look. Hull have a hot head chairman with too higher expectations and a squad that will need to bed in. While Craig Sandercock has lost players from what is starting to look a poor HKR team and could get the blame for it. I also think Hudderfields castle is built on sand with a head coach setup to fail and take the fall.

A few look safer than the others. I think Betts will do well, Widnes have a good chance of having a strong season. Veivers is safe as he works cheap, as long as he doesn't talk himself out of a job. Same could be said of Tony Rea. While Nathan Brown is probably paid to much to get an early play off, so is probably safe for the honeymoon period. Richard Agar can live off last season for a while.

Agree with much of what Noel Cleal says. Wane has done enough to at least see out the last year of his contract. Tony Smith is in no danger and there's no way Brian McDermott can get Leeds into a worse position than the ones from which they've won the last two titles, so he's safe too. Saints, Hudds, and London all have new (or nearly new) coaches, so I can't see any of them getting shut. Gentle seems to be well thought of at Hull, and Richard Agar's stock is well up at Wakey after a great first season, so they both go in the 'safe' column, for me. Betts keeps getting mentioned, but all the rhetoric coming out of Widnes for the last 12 months has been about slow but steady progress. I think he'd struggle to do any worse than last year, so I reckon he'll be fine.

Phil Vievers is in a slightly insecure position, I think. If Salford's new owners have a grand plan for the club, that might involve a clean start and a new coach. If that is the case, then even if they can't get rid of him straight away they'll be looking for an excuse to, and it being Salford one will come along soon enough.

Ian Millward had a dreadful first season at Cas, but it would be unfair to judge him on that, given the personal crisis he's had to deal with. Now that he's one season on and has made a few signings of his own, it'll be do or die time for him.

Craig Sandercock has had a disappointing first season, and has the disadvantage of being in charge of a club with expectations that might be deemed slightly unrealistic. He's my favourite to go first - if they aren't in solid contention for a playoff place by the halfway stage he'll be gone, I reckon.

Having said all that, I wouldn't be surprised if this ended up being the first(?) SL season in which no coach gets the boot. The absence of the threat of relegation makes it a distinct possibility; why spend lots of money paying off a coach when you can just wait for him to see out his contract?

In agreement with you two I think. Here are coaches who I think;

Have 2 years grace at least
Tony Smith
Brian McDermott
Nathan Brown
Laurent Frayssinous

Have 1 years grace at least
Shaun Wane
Matt Gentle
Tony Rea
Richard Agar
Paul Anderson
Denis Betts

Should have 1 years grace (i.e. could be a risk if things go messy quickly)
Francis Cummins
Phil Vievers
Craig Sandercock

Under pressure from the off
Ian Millward

I'm not saying they're fair judgements but based on what's gone before I think they're pretty accurate. Perhaps you could say Sandercock and Betts could be dropped a notch. I think Cas really should just write last season off as one of those and back Millward for the entire season (they may have already stated that to him) to avoid unnecessary disruption. It's their calls though and of the teams, based on last season's efforts, they would have the strongest case if things started badly next year.

I think Betts, Vievers and millward are favourites to go first.

The Widnes fans don't like Betts one bit, they went crazy when he was given the job to coach them in super league. If things don't go well early on, I think the fans will put pressure on O'Conner to sack him.

Salford have had a bad off season with money troubles, new owners etc. When a club have new owners, they like to bring their own man in, if Salford lose a few early on, it might be the excuse they need to bring in their own coach.

Millward has massive pressure this year, they have a very tough start to the season. He's brought a few new faces in but his job IMO rests on the shoulders of Rangi Chase, if he's on fire like 2011 then cas might have ok season.

if Nathan Brown has another typical mid season slip/ blunder like he did at huddersfield multiple times, i see no reason why he wouldnt get sacked for it at Saints?

No chance will saints sack Brown next season. He's signed a 3yr deal and know way will McManus pay him out for 2+ years and then have to pay another coach to come in.

The money side of sacking Royce had no effect at all, Royce was in his last year (his replacement was already 99% sorted) and Rush filled in for the year. It did t cost saints a penny as nobody came in.

Nathan Brown is being very well paid at saints, he was in talks before Royce was sacked.

Anyone can lead a marathon for the first few miles. Was it Brown or Huddersfield, we will find out this year.

SGI never crashed late in the season under Brown, so I suspect that Huddersfield may have not had the quality to last the distance. This is why I think Anderson is under more risk than many on here believe.

Huddersfield in my eyes have an over achieving squad that has lost some good players and an untested coach who seem to have an idealistic attitude imo. The thing that could save Anderson is Ken Davy seems a reasonable guy.

Maybe it is not the team or the players that matter, maybe it is the chairman. This is why Hull looks like a good bet.

i think huddersfield (as a huddersfield fan, I am naturally going to think this) are going to do a hell of a lot better this year. we have made some good aqusitions and bolstered a pack that was mutilated by Nathan Brown. if only we could have got gaskell off you we would have been set up for a good run at the league. but still think in robinson and brough we have a good combo (better than saints perhaps) and as a result id argue that we have genuine quality and are deserving of our previous positions and arnt just an over achieving squad.

I honestly think hudds over achieved under Brown and IMO appointing Anderson is a massive mistake.

I think hudds will struggle to make the top eight.

struggle to make top 8? really? I'm thinking 5,6 or 7 this year.

Warrington
Wigan
Leeds (if they bother with the rounds of just focus on the playoffs)
Saints
Catalans
Hull FC
Huddersfield
Bradford
Hull KR
Castleford (depending if Chase turns up)
Wakefield
London
Widness
Salford

You'd have to be a very poor team to not be able to make the top 8 next year... It's shaping up to be the weakest league competition in living memory.

I said struggle to make the top eight and you've got the giants at 7th so its clear we are not far off agreeing.

Looking at the teams next year, then I'd say you prob will scrape into the 8

As you say you are going to hope for the best being a Huddersfield fan but you also do have more time watching them so I think it balances itself out a bit.

I have to agree with my fellow Saints fans that you lot are not likely to finish out of the top 8 on the basis that there are too many poor sides in the league.

From our experience watching Saints, we can say that you can finish in the same position as you did in the previous season and have very different feeling about how the season went. Some seasons we have finished second and have been happy with what the team has achieved and feel a bit sorry for them that they did not go one step further. Other seasons we have been lucky to finish high up the table and have known that we were a million miles away from winning anything despite making semis and finals.

I think Huddersfield could have a similar finish but I think you could be disappointed by the way they achieved it. But anyway best of luck for next year. I hope you are right and you have a good one.

SGI consistently underperformed in the play offs under Brown. In knock out games Brown's teams are frequently poor when they are expected to win, slightly better as underdogs.

At SGI there was also inconsistency with runs of 4/ 5 losses and runs of up to 7 straight wins.

The combination of tactical inflexibility (Tony Smith regularly outsmarts him) and over mateyness with cliques of players point to him being a very good assistant coach but not one who will build a champion side.

Given his contract and the need for the club to stop losing money, I think we can all agree that Nathan Brown will not be sacked next year.