1. St Helens
2. Castleford
3. Hull FC
4. Leeds
5. Warrington
6. Wakefield
7. Wigan
8. Catalan
9. Huddersfield
10. Widnes
11. Hull KR
12. Salford

It was so difficult to pick a table this season. I feel based on current squads Salford are in the most danger with Murdoch-Masila, T. Carney, Dobson, Walne Brothers and J. Carney departing and I'm sure if the replacements are of the same calibre. Plus as many have said I think they will have off field problems too.

I think Widnes have actually recruited decently with the acquisition of the Albert brothers, Wilde and Inu. Hence why I think they will finish above Hull KR and Salford. But not cause any major problems to the top 8.

Perhaps my most controversial and potentially silly prediction is Wigan in 7th. Based on their current squad I am struggling to see how they will replace McIllorum and Gelling. My guess is they will go out and recruit someone but if they get one or two injuries (especially to O'Loughlin) then I think they could struggle.

Catalan have recruited well. And I think Wakefield look good this season too despite losing Allgood and Sio. Hence their higher finish. Still won't do damage to the top 4 though. Warrington look stronger with a fresh coach and some very good players brought in.

Finally I think Castleford will finish 2nd because of Powell as their coach. They have lost a talisman in Hardaker, but also the leadership of Lynch, and some good backups in the likes of Crooks, Monaghan, Patrick and Larroyer. Mitch Clark could well be a good signing (we've seen him in 2016 at Bradford) and Lo, Clare and Wardle look good. However I am very unsure of Aston, Green and Ellis.

I am positive there will be a restructure for 2019 but for the sake of this thread:

Grand Final - Castleford (hopefully) but head says St Helens.
Challenge Cup - Leeds or Hull FC
£1 Million Match - Leigh vs. Salford with a win for Leigh.

Salford and Widnes to go down with Leigh coming up through £1M Match and Toronto through finishing top 3 in Middle 8's.

Both were fairly mediocre players who weren't first choice and took up quota spots. Squad is much better without them IMO.

Had a first look at Salford's new signings yesterday and pleasantly surprised.

Jack Littlejohn started at 7 and showed some nice touches and has a decent turn of foot for a half. He's a big lad as well and defensively looks pretty sound.

Levy Nzoungou ran the ball in hard and made good yards. He looks very promising for a 19yo and should be a good solid squad player.

Ben Nakubuwai is a big unit but doesn't look the most mobile. A few nice offloads tho and he could be a handful if he gets into decent shape. Not quite a like for like replacement for BMM but again he's young and there's potential there.

Derrell Olpherts - Strong and quick and looks like he could be a handful on the wing. At 25 he's not mega young but he's obviously done his time in the lower divisions and he looks like he could be a good solid SL player. I'd be more than happy if he turns out as good as Josh Griffin was for us.

Gavin Bennion - Likely to be a squad player at best with the forwards in front of him. Scored a good try tho and shouldn't be any worse than a couple of players that departed at the end of last season.

Losing the likes of Dobson & BMM were a big blow but everyone on here seems to think we've lost half our squad. I certainly don't expect us to be whipping boys like most forumites but I'm not expecting a top half finish either. We've got plenty of size in the pack so shouldn't be bullied by anyone but we do lack pace in the backs so will come up short against the best backlines in SL. Overall i think we've got a stronger squad than last season but the starting Xlll is probably a touch weaker.

Realistically we should finish above Widnes and KR and then it's a matter of picking up those extra couple of wins that sneaks us into a top 8 position.

I'm going to say we'll finish 9th and hopefully another decent cup run.

Top 4 for me will be Saints, Hull, Cas & Leeds with Wakey having another decent season and finishing top 6. W@nky can't be anywhere near as (rather enjoyably ) awful as last season and Hudds will need need their big 4/5 star players to stay fit or they'll be lurking around the bottom 4 again.

Fair enough. I can only go by what I have seen of them which admittedly isn't a lot haha so I'll take your word for it as you'll have seen them a lot more than I.

Can I ask why everyone thinks Widnes will struggle this year? What do supporters from other clubs see wrong with our squad. I know we haven't got the biggest squad and we finished 12th last season but we were decimated by injuries and the squads overall fitness was very poor. We have addressed the fitness issue by replacing our conditioner. We finished 2nd in the middle 8s and our youngsters are a year older now.

Well for me its quite simple, you have the weakest squad in the league in my opinion.

You were awful last season and you have lost 2 of your top players in Corey Thompson and Bridge and replaced them with a centre whilst has plenty of ability has shown he has 0 appetite to be playing RL.

If i were a Widnes fan i would have 0 confidence in Betts, but that`s just me.

or quite possible that 9 or 10 other teams are stronger, but we will see how that transforms onto the pitch, look at warrington last season, leeds before

widnes will trouble teams at home no doubt but not may away

easier to predict bottom 4 than the top 4/6 atm
salford, widnes, rovers and catalan (still dont look strong enough) for me

huge blow for hull kr losing addy, even if they bring in some fresh players it will take them a while to settle in

Why?
1. You finished 12th last season
2. You have a new conditioner who hasn't proven anything yet
3. You don't have exactly a great deal of youngsters being developed to a high std within your club, so one year older doesn't equal improvement over and above any other teams youngsters = parity.
4. Don't rate your coach
5. Injuries will happen every season, that's pretty much a gimme, what if other clubs have a better season injury wise this year than last? Again that means parity.
6. You don't have a big squad with little depth.

Think that about covers it.

FWIW I don't think you will finish bottom. I think you're marginally better than Salford and I don't think your a million miles from most other SL teams. Nobody knows which teams will really fire this year so as a Wakey fan I'm not underestimating anyone.

Purely on paper and due to a year away HKR look very weak on paper to me - when a player like Addy is a big loss then you're lacking imho. That said I can guarantee they will beat us in the first round

Your biggest weakness for me is Betts, I really don't get how he survives as a coach.

He said a great deal to a high standard - Most SL clubs are producing 2 or 3 that play regular and are to a good standard. Are Widnes ahead of the rest of SL? A genuine question as im not familiar with any apart from Matt Whitley.

Some good feed back thanks.
From our academy I'd say that at least 6 will be in our match day 17 at any point this season
Craven
Gilmore
Gerrard
J Chaplehow
Whitley
D. Walker

Plus we have Ince, Johnstone, Chamberlain and T Chaplehow who are pushing to start, Ashall, Farnworth and B. Walker who prob need to be drip fed into the side this year. So not too bad.
Would any of them get into any other SL Side? I cant answer that but we did have to tie down D. Walker to a long contract.
From our inclusion into SL our board made the decision to bring through our academy players with a bit of experienced pros around them. Last season our experienced pros were dropping like flies so we had to throw the kids in at the deep end. Most held their own which was good to see but the intensity of most games against seasoned pros told in the end.
For most games last year we had academy lads playing at 1,2,3,5,6,7 and 9 with only Runciman being an ever present. no side in SL could cope with having to do that and it told in the end with us finishing 12th. come the middle 8s when some of our players started coming back we improved thus enabling us to finish above Hull KR, Catalans and Leigh.

Some of them are nearly 27, when your referring to youngsters been another year older i thought you was talking 18/19/20/21 - Unfortunately although i do like to see it there is no reward to having a team of homegrown players.

To answer your question as a Wakefield fan i wouldn't have any of those players in my squad over what we currently have although i do think you have 2 really good prospects in Whitley and young walker at Hooker who i think will develop into top players from what i have seen of them.

TBF there are so many unknowns this year who knows what is going to happen? Which is why i don`t usually keep my predictions to myself, because im way out every year Which should be good for your lot next season!

IMO Widnes have a decent junior setup and will eventually reap the rewards. That said I think it will take time. Most players don't start to really mature until the mid 20s and if you have too many in at once they can get bad habits and too used to losing. Looking at the Widnes squad they haven't any big names that stand out so I can't see them getting many wins versus the top 8 sides. They will be in the bottom 3 with HKR and Salford I reckon.