For me success would be getting off th bottom of the table as I alluded to in the opening post.

A top 8 finish would be an amazing turnaround in one season but I'd just be happy not to be embarrassed by poor performances

Leeds:

It's easy to look at leeds and say that they've lost 3 legends and won the treble last season, so all down hill from here on in. However Leeds still have one of the best backlines in super league, creative spark in the middle of the pitch combining experience (mcguire, burrow) with youth (sutcliffe, ward, lilley) and of course again a strong pack which in actual fact is more youthful than in previous seasons. .

Let's not forget as well, that at the end of last season leeds managed to complete the hardest lap of the treble with their first choice hooker, sutcliffe and ward out injured, all of whom had excellent seasons and were key to leeds fantastic early season form.

Then we factor in that going into this season leeds had only 3 players on international duty at the end of last season, which means the majority of the squad have had chance to refresh themselves and have a thorough pre-season.

In terms of leeds competition, obviously wigan have tomkins back who should improve them, and saints should be stronger for Cunningham getting his first ever season as head coach done. Huddersfield, warrington et al will all be in around the action, but no one screams out as especially superior to leeds.

Leeds have the chance of 4 trophies next season (WCC, CC, SL, LLS) They won't win the treble but they have a good chance of winning one of the those trophies this season and will be in the mix at the end of the season.

The difficulty for Leeds fans now might not so much be convincing others that you'll be strong, more that it shouldn't just be taken for granted and is worthy of excitement and interest. Like Wigan in the late 1980s and early 1990s - a great team whose fantastic achievements started to feel routine after a while. In football too, with Liverpool when I was a kid and then Ferguson's Manchester United. The level of success they had weirdly diminished its impact. In the longer term, it starts to look remarkable again, but that requires a period of being a bit rubbish.
So, yeah, to have been truly great Leeds need to start losing more frequently. Unfortunately for Leeds fans, I see no prospect of that in 2016, dooming you to another season of the same old stuff, meandering to a familiar conclusion at Old Trafford.

Saints might stand a chance of top four place if they ignore Cunningham's tactics of three drives and a rubbish kick.

Think we might find a big improvement in 4 drives then a moderate kick. Hopefully Cunningham will have some game plans this season.

Widnes - We've already been written-off by most as having no-chance of even making the top 8.
We've strengthened the back-line and the second row, still a bit light at prop and the overall squad is a bit small for my liking.
But if we don't have the injuries we had last season and can keep our play makers on the pitch for the majority of the season then we may surprise a few and could finish anywhere up to 6th.

You definitely won't finish in the top 8 never mind finishing as high as 6th
See you in the middle 8's

Wigan

We're finally going in to a season as strong if not stronger then the previous season. We've lost Burgess who we'd like in the squad in an ideal world but will hopefully have a fully fit and motivated Josh Charnley to take his place. When at his best he's superb as a try scoring record of approx 174 try's in 172 games tells you. Other then Burgess we've only lost squad players.

We've got Sam Tomkins back! People talk about his record in Australia as though he failed. He had one very good year and one year with a knee injury that has been mis-diagnosed. He'll be a different player to the one which left but no less effective in overall results imo and we'll have one of the very best players in the league at the back for us.

The main plus for us though imo is that we're a year older. We've lost two finals on the trot but we've been in them (plus the one we won) and young lads have gained huge experience in big games. We've also got lads like Bateman and Williams who've gained international experience. The squads average age is very young with Joel Tomkins at 28 the second oldest but in terms of big game experience we're getting it all the time.

We'll go close again.

I'll let Saddened talk you through our chances of success

St Helens:

Only saving grace is that every other team looks weaker in my opinion with the exception of Wigan if Tomkins can hit the floor running once he is fit. Our pack is the best in the league by a long way now that JP and Captain Charisma have retired but when you have 2 halfbacks who are utterly clueless this counts for nothing. I guess it all depends on how Laurel & Hardy get on this year

Regards

King James

Wakefield:

After last year, I'm just hoping that we'll be competitive every week. Signs are promising against a strong Leeds squad but a very long way to go.

P.S

I'm expecting one of the big four to do a Chelsea.

It amazes me that SOME Saints fans still think their pack is miles better than the rest of the league. Fair enough with the idea it's the best but IF it is, it isn't by much and certainly not anywhere near as much over the other teams as they like to think.