Spoilsport, I was saving that one for later! It's best that it was Bradford, too. Though I fear our tetchy new friend may explode. Oh well. Anyway his carer tells me gingdong has been delayed while Dyno-Rod pump the saliva out of his keyboard.

Doubt even his dad goes back to 1974...

It would be a crime, punishable by having to befriend gingdong, not to pay homage to the Hunslet Room, when playing Hunslet. In the interests of research I intend a visit in the near future. www.gardengateleeds.co.uk/

It would be a crime, punishable by having to befriend gingdong, not to pay homage to the Hunslet Room, when playing Hunslet. In the interests of research I intend a visit in the near future. www.gardengateleeds.co.uk/

Obviously we are all presuming we will make the middle eight. If my understanding is correct if are to be promoted, either in a play off or by being in the top 3 of the 8 we will have to beat at least one Super league side.

I'm guessing most of us would pick Wakey and HKR as the most likely to be in the middle 8 with us. Considering the respective merits of the squads so far do we stand any chance of beating them.

Wakey managed the truly extraordinary feat of losing to the Bulls twice last season. However a change of coach meant they finished strongly, have signed Paea and Smith. Purely on the basis of their front row I'd say Wakey have the edge on us.

HKR look very light in all depts but have signed a couple of Aussies and are still looking to sign more. The Chairman has come out slagged off the players and they've released almost half the squad. They finished the season poorly and are looking to play Donno and McCarthy in the back row who are both relatively light without appearing to have enough props. i think is a close one.

The unknown factor is the toll the season will tell. Will the relatively lighter campaign in the Championship mean the Bulls are in better shape after 22 games than two SL squads, one of whom look short on numbers.

Personally I'd pick our backrow and stand off options over either of them but elsewhere not so sure. Personally, I think we're a good prop short of doing both of them.

What do others think?

Of course one potentially levelling factor is morale. If by the time we meet, Bradford have been winning most of their games, and playing well, they'll be up against superleague teams that have, by definition, being doing the opposite. I'd expect one of those SL sides at least to be going through some sort of trauma or crisis of confidence (one of them lurches from disaster to disaster more often than even we do). And it's only one of them we need to overhaul.

TBH I think you're being a bit too 'glass half empty' with regards to our front row. Sidlow and Clough are both solid enough SL level props (albeit bottom half of SL). Davies and Tahroui both have the physical size and are generally well thought of at clubs there leaving. Fleming and Bates both look like decent prospects. Admittedly the last four are ubknown quantities to an extent. I dont doubt one or two might turn out to be duds but I dont think all of them will be. Our front row is certainly in better shape than it was at pretty much any point last year, I can only think of a couple of games where we had 4 genuine props available, And that lac of go forward combined with our defence was our biggest weakness last season. There already looked to be signs of improvement in defence after lowes took over at back end of season so hopefully a pre-season together will continue that improvement.

As PP said we're likely to go into the middle 8's having won majority of our games against teams that have lost majority of theirs and that confidence will stand us in good stead too.

It's going to be hard whoever we come up against. Playing badly or not they are allowed double our salary cap [I appreciate they may well not be actually [ipaying[/i double] and will have been playing against better opposition than us, all season, so are going to be in the swing with the kind of form needed. Unless they have been getting some pretty heavy tonkings I suspect the fact they are now pitted against Championship clubs is going to give them a boost; just think how we felt in cup games against lower league opposition, however well we'd been playing in the league. ATEOTD, they know they only need to avoid losing to one of us to get back, which is pretty good encouragement, to be fair.

I feel our squad is going to be a strong one in the qualifying bit early on, in truth I feel it's possibly even stronger than one or two we've put out in SL, but it's the business end of the season where the more meaningful trophies are handed out. To that end, I hope we really are considered the 'big scalp' everyone wants, as it will give us that intensity which we'll lack compared to the SL clubs in that Mid 8 section.

Finishing top 2 in the Championship could be vital. The result is you play 4 games at home instead of 3.

I dont fancy the chances of any of the champioship clubs finishing 3 or 4.

One of the main improvements under Lowes last season was what he called the 'mini pre-season'. The conditioning of the forwards was a disaster as they were almost all too light. If you're going to have bigger props (which I 100% agree with) then in absence of the class of player we can't afford you would normally need more numbers owing to reduced workload over a season due to higher impact etc. Big props (JP, Sam, Graham apart) who play too many minutes turn into rubbing rags at the seasons end.

I like our squad, lots of size all over the park. I think Jimmy will have them running their weight and be more aggressive. Looking forward to seeing Harry S get a proper go. I think any game against bottom SL opposition will be 50/50.

BUT over the course of an entire season with play offs at the end there's an 18 stone hole in that front row.

The main reason why I feel the squad is strong is because, whilst maybe lacking the odd top individual from the past, it's far better balanced than most of the recent ones and we have no obvious holes...well, I'd like another 'proper' half maybe, but with the cap we have, I doubt we could have done much better. I still feel the 'mini pre-season' is not so much a new innovation from Lowesy, as a reaction to the fact that Gary Dempsey is away with the England team in Australia, but obviously I could be wrong on that. In any case, the fact we can attract people of Dempsey's quality has to be a plus in its own right.

I'd like the club to get some pre-season games announced. Mainly just so we can get to see some of the new guys getting a run out

Would be nice to have a pop at the Rhino's for old times sake - would probably draw a decent crowd as well

In an interview with the T and A Jimmy said he'd had a 'mini pre-season' shortly after he took over. I'm guessing he got them on the weights. The fact that he's gone and got Dempsey makes a big statement about size/strength/fitness. Credit to the BOD for backing Lowes with a decent backroom. February feels like forever.

the mini preseason was probably mostly a mindset reset of how he wanted them to play. The team was underperforming including physically, extra physical workout would not alter that as the source would be either central fatigue or more likely chronic fatigue syndrome. change of mindset, getting them to focus on his positives, would get the most out of their existing fitness levels.