I'm quietly confident for next year. As Bullseye said, our spine this time last year was Mathers/Gaskell/Addy. Next year it will be Moss/Pryce & Keyes/Chisholm. Our backline looks superb and is probably the quickest in the championship. Probably a forward or two light in the pack, but i'm sure we can get some SL props on loan who aren't getting game time.

Rohan will get a full pre-season with them and stamp his mark on the team. They will probably be a determined attitude this year after being humiliated last year.

I think we'll be be pushing the top 2. I see no reason why we can't go to Hull KR and win and set our stall out. Im sure there is plenty of recruitment to be done by all but noseying on the KR board, their strongest side (according to them) looks something along the lines of the below. I wouldn't have any of their 1-7 over ours aprt from maybe Minns. They have the bigger pack, but not a massive bench. KR are obviously favorites, but i don't think there's a huge difference.

1. Matty Marsh.......................................... 1. Kieran Moss
2. Ben Cockayne........................................ 2. James Clare
3. Andrew Hefferman................................. 3. Alex Foster
4. Thomas Minns........................................ 4. Kris Welham
5. Ryan Shaw............................................ 5. Ethan Ryan
6. Jordan Abdul......................................... 6. Leon Pryce
7. Jamie Ellis............................................ 7. Dane Chisholm
8. Nick Scruton......................................... . 8. Ben Kavanagh
9. Shaun Lunt........................................... 9. Adam O'brein
10 Mitch Clark............................................ 10 Adam Sidlow
11. Maurice Blair........................................ 11. Tom Olbison
12. James Greenwood................................ 12. Alex Mellor
13. Danny Addy ....................................... 13. Lachlan Burr

14. Dane Tilse........................................... 14. Joe Lumb/Phil Joseph
15. George Lawler..................................... 15. Ross Peltier
16. Chris Clarkson..................................... 16. Jon Margrin
17. James Donaldson................................ 17. Jason Walton

Think the thing that HKR will have is that they're still used to playing SL opposition and haven't been acclimatized (dragged down) to championship level yet.

Sensei Bull's point is well made but I think if we can make it until the start of the season without financial/off field mishap we'll be ok once we have the cash coming in from regular games.

I don't think our pack is strong enough yet. If you recall, Leigh spent most of the regular season last year with a decimated back line yet a hard, big set of seasoned forwards which pretty much was the beating of all the Champ teams they came up against. They didn't even get their half backs in place until the middle 8's really. Our pack looks to be too small and too young at the moment.

I actually think our pack might do ok, especially when you think about what we were running with for most of last season.

Sidlow, Kavanagh and Joseph are three solid, hard working props who all have SL experience.
Roche put something on his twitter the other day that made me think the rumours are true, so he'll be another solid addition.
I'll admit that Magrin and Peltier are relative unknowns, but surely they will still offer more than Lauaki/Clough/Fleming?

I am a little bit worried about squad depth and there's a shift in quality - shall we say - from the last few squads. But then again the bloated squad approach didn't work.

I liken it to being on a diet. When you're used to piling your plate high of junk and then you're faced with normal portion control of unappetising fare. It can be daunting, but it should be better.

I bloody hope so anyway.

I also have a nagging doubt over the halves, Pryce especially. I fear he'll play a similar number of games as Gaskell. In this scenario it'd be Chisholm and Keyes with no other back-up in case of a ban or injury. That's why I hope Thomas can at least get some game time on dual reg at worst and be kept match fresh as an option.

But then I think how many other squads have more than one or two back up halves? Not many.

Your squad looks pretty decent likewise I'm happy with ours I think we'll be top two comfortably might need a SL club to implode to go up looking forward to a nice big crowd for the opener

Uh-oh. Rervers fan on the board. Expect the FC fans to start squabbling!

Given the quotes around Peltier and how he's basically given up two months income so that he can concentrate on getting into shape just for pre-season, it kind of tells you the mentality of the guy. I don't expect him to go missing when we need some heavy hitting done

I think Peltier could be a real plus. He can't be worse than Lauaki whatever he does.

Losing an international scrum half to hull KR is a big loss

kavanagh did well in the middle tonight for Scotland

Think the season is about survival and nothing else.

To clarify, this time last year you had the following;
Full Back: Mullaney
5/8th: Gaskell
Scrum Half: Seijka

Mathers didn't arrive until later in the season.

As for pinning your hopes on a coach who inherited a team in 3rd spot and then had half the season to keep them there but failed miserably in possibly the worst display of coaching seen at your club for quite some time v Fev.

All I can say is good luck but don't hold your breath. Looking forward to seeing what your 'toughest ever' pre season does for your fortunes if you actually make it to Hull KR for the first game.

You obviously havent seen much of us lately.
As for "inheriting a team in 3rd spot", thats akin to saying everything was OK 10 mins before the Titanic hit the iceberg.