Here goes:

Wigan
Warrington
Hull FC
Saints
Castleford
Leeds
Catalan
Huddersfield
Wakefield
Widnes
Salford
Leigh

KR & Leigh in the MPG

I generally agree with the first post although not sure he's right about my team, Wakey. The season ended with the semi-final as we'd secured safety from a very competitive middle 8's. We'll probably go in patches, but I think we'll be competitive. We have a habit of surprising people and have finished in the top eight three times as often as we've finished bottom. Not the greatest addition to a trophy cabinet, but seeing as though we are predicted to be bottom every single year it's not bad going.

The interesting thing next year could be that 6 to 12 could be a lot closer, with all positions in it determined quite late.

Think there's a few that are tricky to predict next year.

Leeds will improve, just how much is tricky to say. They have a tough opening 4 games and how many points they get from them will set the tone.

Leigh, recruiting well and showed they can beat SL opposition in the Middle 8's. Just how well and quickly they settle into weekly contests against SL opposition is an unknown.

Huddersfield. Still got most of the squad that got into top 4 spots for a number of years. The question mark for me is Rick Stone. He managed to just scrape them over the line to safety, not sure yet how good he'll be for them over the course of a full new season.

Salford as a few have mentioned. Got good players to make the Top 8 but you feel they're never too far away from some drama centred around Koukash.

Hull. Won the cup and fell just short in the league. Got the team to do it again just a question of them having the focus and mindset to back up a successful season with another one. Consistency week upon week in a single season is one thing, consistency season upon season is another thing and only a few of the usual suspects achieve that.

Not so sure about Leigh. They made it into the top flight off the back of a team of ageing players enjoying their last hurrah after a season that was less taxing than that of the opposition, some of whom ended up there after being battered and bruised. Not sure how that roster will cope with the weekly rigours of the top flight. Huddersfield and Hull KR ended up there because they were physically depleted.

Well aren't you just a little ray of sunshine!!!

To be fair, he is consistent in his continual running down of the game. I'd have thought he'd have found a different sport by now, but I applaud his determination to be persistently negative.

He's a got a fair point though - apart from Wigan beating Cronulla. That's just daft.

Thanks for a reasoned reply this time Code13.

I'm not saying you didn't have injuries, of course you did, but I still maintain that other teams with arguably less talented squads had it worse yet performed much better. As for the conditioning team, I wouldn't know about that, was it a new team to the one that had seen you be successful in previous years?

Maybe with a good preseason and a better coaching staff around him Rick Stone will get you firing again, who knows? But if I had to put my money one way or another, I'd put it on you being in the middle 8's again.

Leeds will improve but after looking at recruitment I'm struggling to see how they will improve significantly to challenge the top 4. Ditto Huddersfield. It's going to be interesting to see the bottom half this season as it could be a real battle to avoid the dread middle eights.

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

In reality, I foresee those bottom 6 being really close and any one of them could finish in the top eight. Similarly, I think Cas will push for the top 4 but time will tell whether we can overcome the four sides I've listed, who all look really strong again.

I'm not making excuses, we finished where we did because ultimately we weren't good enough.
But at the beginning of the season, we were disrupted by various things, one of our Vice captains leaves due to a misdemeanour, which caused a rift throughout the squad, and various players (allegedly) coming to blows over it, the rift wasn't healed until the end of middle 8's (again,allegedly).
Our other Vice Captain retires days before the season starts, we then lose 4 of our most experienced and influential players within the first 3 weeks of the season through injury and other misdemeanours ( apparently) and our captain is stripped of the armband which causes more friction and rifts within the squad.
So within 3 weeks of the start of the season we have lost our entire leadership group and 3 more vastly experienced players, we then have to scrat around for retired players and players frozen out at supposed inferior teams on loan and call up 3 or 4 academy lads who have never even been near the first team environment.
In the first 9 games we had 6 different half back combinations, 7 different full backs, 6 different left sides, only Leroy and Jerry kept the same positions for the first 10 weeks of the season, by which time, having lost a number of close games, we possibly would have won with more know how and experience, confidence is completely shot to pieces and we would never get it back.
We also played some very poor stuff at times, but at times we were unlucky in games and sometimes wrong options and individual errors cost us dearly.
We also played well at times and showed glimpses of what we are capable of, I'm not saying we were too good to finish bottom, because the results don't lie, but we were nowhere near as bad as what people think we were, basically, the injuries and disruptions in the first few weeks of the season cost us in the end.
Sorry for the long winded way round, but i have tried to get my point(s) across.

For me Cas need to improve their defence before taking the next step into the top 4. 2nd most points conceded last year after the regular 23 rounds and roughly around 200 points more than the top 3.

As much as it's good to watch them ball in hand, when it comes to silverware you need a tighter defence, just look at the scorelines of this seasons two finals....12-10 & 12-6.

We will win the GF & CC.