Leigh Centurions
To decide how we'll do next year you have to try to workout what went so disastrously wrong in the Qualifiers, we played some brilliant rugby in The Championship but some awful stuff in the Qualifiers. In my opinion there was two main things that went wrong.

1.We underestimated how important momentum is against SL teams. Defence hadn't been our strongest point all season but if you let a Championship team score against you you'll get the ball back & get anther go; if a SL team scores against you they'll keep you pined down on your try line until they score again. Hopefully we've learnt from that & the more experienced players brought in will also help. Coupled with how our forwards have strengthened hopefully this issue will have been solved. Would still like to see us make a big effort to stop Championship teams scoring against us even if we've already got the game won.

2. I think heads went. In the space of 3 weeks we went from being league winners for the 2nd year in a row, having only lost once all season for the 2nd year in a row and being hot favourites for promotion. 3 weeks later we'd lost against Hull KR after a big lead at half time, been well and truly trounced by Salford who we'd have expected to be a close game and lost by 1 point to Wakefield, coupled with Bradford's win against Salford we suddenly for the 1st time in 2 years were underdogs with it all to do & I don't think the players could cope mentally. Coupled with a string of injures you could see that the players' minds and bodies had gone. Hopefully having been through it this year they'll be ready for it next, as they say you have to lose a cup final to win one the same thing may apply. Also the experience of the players brought in should also help.

I understand what many people are saying about the players we've brought in not doing much but causing trouble at Salford. Well Salford finished 3rd in The Qualifiers which will do for me. Also Paul Rowley has long said that the most important thing for a coach to do is to make sure his players are happy, if they're not happy they won't be playing their best. We've got a good history of looking after players at Leigh, there always seems to be a good comradery between players when you hear them speak or see behind the scenes videos. Much as many people don't like him it's clear Derek Beaumont looks after his players. Compare that to Salford where Koukash publically blames individual players when things go wrong and there's clearly something wrong with player welfare at Salford with so many players demanding to leave with such bad feeling for the club last season. I'm confident we'll see a better side to these players than Salford did as they'll be looked after a lot better.

I do think everything about Leigh Centurions is Super League Quality. If it's a higher quality than any of the bottom 4 SL teams and if we can prove that on the field which is the only place it matters, we'll have to wait and see. A lot could happen between now & the Super 8s starting so no real predictions on that but I do think we'll finish top of The Championship again, think we've strengthened with SL quality players while Bradford have only consolidated with top level Championship players, not sure anyone else has strengthened enough to catch that top 2.

I think you'll find you actually finished 8th.

That depends on whether you class the 8's as a separate comp or a continuation of the regular season. I'll leave it to you to decide whether we finished three spots above you or whether we were in a whole different league.

As Zucchini alluded to below what position do you consider Rovers finished 9th or 10th? serious question.

Rovers finished 10th, and then 1st in the middle 8's.

As the points carried forward into the Super 8's, it was in essence a continuation of SL, so Hull ended up 8th.

I think.

I agree. 8th and 10th respectively. Not good enough for either team. As an aside I think a fit Campese is critical if Rovers are to finish in the top eight. There seems to be little information from Rovers if he will be fit for the start of the season which must be a worry.

for the giants top aussie signing hinchcliffe working his magic at hooker and feeding brough to supply mcgillvary on the wing for bags of tries

rapira strengthening the pack for them to work behind too

I started this thread as a means to be positive about your own team without the need to denegrate any other teams or rank your team above others by predicting a league table.

I think it's a nice spin on the type of threads we normally see at this time of year and it's been good so far.

Keighley Cougars' supporters have been excited by the signings made since the end of last season. Today's friendly against a full strength Oldham Championship team shows Cougars could be on to a winner this season. LLS & promotion could surely be the result. The players selected today handled everything Oldham could throw at them and scored three nice tries to secure the win. Team spirit & confidence on a high. After the trauma of 2015, hoping this could be Cougars' season.

I agree with you, I'm not sure I've caught the games where Hinchcliffe has 'pulled the strings' from dummy half. Workhorse and strong as he may be, he's not the most inventive player. Steady, but not going to unpick defences.

Improvement on what they had, but I don't expect to see him at the man of steel awards

In terms of pure playing ability I think you're right, but what you've lost from Sinfield and Peacock in terms of experience, leadership and big match nous simply can't be bought. Sinfield did play a reduced role for you guys last year, but without him pulling off that 40/20 in the semi-final - which was so typical of Sinfield in big matches down the years - I think it's pretty much certain that you wouldn't even have been in the Grand Final. You've got a great squad, but I'd be amazed if the loss of those three leaders didn't take its toll in some way.

At Saints I think we're well equipped to challenge for the LLS. We have what looks like a better pack than last year, with the excellent Savelio likely to take a more senior role and Lama Tasi able to make a more consistent contribution than Mose Masoe. We also now have backup in pivotal positions, with Fages and Owens on board. As a result we should be able to spell Roby a bit more to keep him fresh, and also have plenty of cover when the inevitable halves or full back injury crisis happens. We have better competition for places this year and we shouldn't be as badly affected when we get injuries, so I think we'll be stronger on a week-to-week basis. I suspect, though, that we're a star player or two away from being a favourite to win the showpiece games.

to be fair he's one of those workhorse players that every team needs. he's definately one of those who you don't always notice - until he's not in the team. was one of the first picks for craig bellamy and that should tell you a lot. that said i'm not sure i would have spent a chunk of the cap on bringing such a player halfway round the world, but i guess we'll find out soon enough

It looks to me that this year has a lot more uncertainty for a lot of clubs than the last few, which is a good thing IMO. In terms of Leeds its all about the halfbacks and hooker for me. The kicking game will be a big question mark, as will goal kicking.

Looking at the other clubs the big question is Sam Tomkins. When he comes back he'll be a yard slower than when he left, but he's a very good player with a great rugby brain, so for me its not that he won't be massive for Wigan, but more how he and Wigan may have to adapt to get the best out of him.

isn't tomkins out injured until around april?

(makes a bit of a farce all these 'rugby pages' on fb and twitter tipping him for MoS already)