Fwiw, I think there will be a decent scrap for the bottom couple of play-off places. There's a number of teams that could compete for them. Apart from Wigan, Wire, Saints, Hudds and Leeds you could realistically pull out any of the other clubs to come in any order below them. With the exception of maybe London, who I think will do well to finish the season atm.

I think with the financial and player difficulties suffered by London and Wakefield to some extent, its definitely lifted a little bit of pressure off the teams like us, Cas and Salford. Although this shouldn't be taken for granted or it could come back and bite us in the .

GF winners - Leeds
CC winners - Wigan

Superleage table - irrelevant

I'm not sure Wigan will be weaker, but it does depend on how Bowen turns out. If he settles and his knees are ok then I don't think Wigan will miss Tomkins as much as some think they will.

1) Huddersfield
2) Warrington
3) Wigan
4) Saints
5) Leeds
6) Hull FC
7) Catalan
Hull KR
9) Salford
10) Widnes
11) Castleford
12) Wakefield
13) Bradford
14) London

WOW Soooper Doooooper League has expanded quickly.

Must have missed that!

I agree with you there Leeds dave. But IMO this answer of yours is the problem with Superleague. The same teams will win it and be in the finals every year, With one other side having a good year. We have rules in place,(the cap) and (the overseas quoter) to stop certain sides dominating, but they still do.
The league also has rules in place I.E homegrown/academy products being exempt in some way from the cap. Now IMO this rule only benefit the BIG/Rich clubs, teams like cas and Wakey who both have great academys can't take full advantage of the homegrown rule because as soon as a player shows promise, bang a top 4/5 snap them up, so basically there just training up players for the big sides.

The salary cap on the other hand apparently stops smaller teams spending beyond there means, while stopping the big sides getting all the great players for them selves. So why are both these reasons for the cap not happening?

People keep having a go at our chairman about wanting to get rid of the cap, coming out with reasons like "the top sides will run away with it every year" which they do anyway, and "the bottom sides can't afford it" which they can't anyway.
Things won't change with this rule, nobody from outside the sport is going to take on teams like Salford, Wakey, cas, Koukash admits he was tricked into buying Salford. The league is a weak one at this momont in time and with union and the nrl to contend with the cap is only making the superleague weaker not more competitive or stronger.

I think you're right about London and Bradford are in a state as well, Wakefield have quietly gone about rebuilding and now just need a couple of halfbacks to be better than they were last year. Signing halfbacks of any quality is not being underestimated either, so we might have to make do and mend as there aren't many available.

I hope nobody's pointless ..

should be impossible to predict , especially early season as the new squads settle in .

Wigan / Warrington / Saints / Hull / Hull KR / Salford / Wakefield / Cas :- all made some major personel changes , or had key players retire or move on.
London will virtually have to rebuild with barely a month , but If they bring people over of the quality of Jamie Soward etc , even they might bag a surprise.
Leeds , still relying on their old guard , who will be 1 yr older so alot depends on their youth stepping up.
Next season could be the the most open . of the sides Huddersfield seem to have the most stable team. but can they replicate last seasons form ?

Fact, 56% of the World Cup England squad was developed by 3 clubs: saints Wigan and Leeds. (This rises to 60% if you include those in the original 25 man squad.)

You are right, the top clubs will be the biggest benefactors of the home grown rule changes on the salary cap. But not because of poaching. But because the majority of top clubs top talent is home grown, meaning they will have more money to spend on the cap ever before.

My club, saints, for example, could have graham, roby, Amor as it's starting row in 2015, who are all (could be in amors case) internationals. Graham and roby alone is easily 400-600k of someone's cap, but instead will count as 200k leaving a lot more to strengthen even further.

As for losing players to the nrl, with youth development in place, you can lose tomkins, and simply replace him with Hampshire when he's ready, a strong enough development program can help you deal with it,

The top clubs won't be caught until clubs are forced to spend on youth development like saints Leeds and Wigan have chosen to do - the rule change isn't designed to make the gap closer, it's designed to try and encourage people to actually develop in the same way these clubs have, and by doing so then be able to compete.

I believe that Saints new scrum half will be capable of giving the team a distinct advantage over most with his field kicking. Having watched him in the NRL for the past three seasons i believe he is a match for most in this art within the NRL and if they play to his strengths and escape an injury list like last seasons I can see Saints doing very well indeed.

Mose Masoe will ad a lot to their pack and with these two players into what was already developing into a decent side towards the seasons end they will almost certainly be thereabouts and I favour them to take top position with a run of luck, something that all teams require in the long run.

1. St Helens
2. Wigan
3. Huddersfield
4. Leeds
5. Warrington
6. Salford
7. Hull
8. Catalans
9. Hull KR
10. Widnes
11. Castleford
12. Bradford
13. Wakefield
14. London

Hull KR will finish 7th with a solid super league season only distracted by a successful challenge cup campaign.

But we've seen movement within that top group of clubs. Whether it's Leeds 10 years ago, or Warrington moving up, Bradford dropping down, now Huddersfield pushing the top clubs. I don't think its unreasonable to suggest that the GF will probably be won by one of 4/5 SL clubs next season. Either Leeds, Wigan, Saints, Warrington or possibly Huddersfield. Is 4/5 with a good chance of winning out of 14 clubs actually that bad? I'd say it's pretty good in pro sport. The Premier League will be won by 1 out of a max of 4 clubs (Man Utd, Man City, Arsenal, Chelsea), yet people don't complain at that league being uncompetitive.

You say the salary cap and the overseas quota don't stop teams dominating. Well for starters the overseas quota isn't in place for that reason, it's there to try and stop clubs reliance on overseas players. The salary cap most definitely does stop teams dominating. Hence 4 different teams topping the table in the last 5 seasons. The salary cap has 2 reasons for being. 1 is to spread talent around (which it does, otherwise the top clubs would stockpile players) the other is to try and encourage clubs to spend on areas other than the first team wages (which it also does with varying success depending on the club).

The Homegrown salary cap allowance benefits all teams equally whilst encouraging clubs to invest in youth production. It allows 1 Club Trained players' salary to be exempt from the cap up to a max of £50,000. If anything that benefits a club like Cas or Wakey since the player they produce has up to £50k exempt from the cap with them and not with any other club, making it harder for another club to sign that player.

If Koukash was "tricked" into buying Salford then he's even more stupid than his fake twitter account. People are all for reasonable discussion about the salary cap. Things like dispensations etc. but for Koukash to come in and start throwing his toys out of the pram is just daft and shows he (and those who think getting rid of the cap is a good idea) don't understand the reasons for (and effects of) the salary cap.

It's there to stop 1 team running away with it year on year - Done
It's there to try and encourage spending on other areas - Done (at least at some clubs)

1) Warrington Wolves
2) Wigan Warriors
3) Huddersfield Giants
4) Leeds Rhinos
5) St Helens
6) Catalan Dragons
7) Hull FC
8 ) Hull KR
9) Salford Red Devils
10) Widnes Vikings
11) Bradford Bulls
12) Wakefield Wildcats
13) Castleford Tigers
14) London Broncos

SL - St Helens
CC - Warrington

Yeah there has been different teams at the top of the league in recent seasons, but what does finishing top mean today? It means you get a shiny hub cap. Are you remembered as champions?? NO. Name the grand final winners of the last 6 years, then you'll truly see how the cap doesn't work. IMO the rules in place are there to keep the top at the top and the bottom at the bottom. Big sides with more money better facility's, bigger academys, are always going to entice the best young talent from the game. With relegation coming back that will take away the ethos of building a team from the ground up and pumping money into youngsters.

Small clubs are going to revert back to panic buying and anything they can to stay up, at the same time again making the top stronger and the gap wider! Only 4 sides have won Superleague in the last 18 years, compare that to the nrl and it shows how competitive the Aussie league is compared to ours.

As for Koukash, he said it himself on the radio he was tricked into buying Salford. He wasn't aware of any cap or restrictions. Why would new money like Koukash be willing to buy into a sport where he/she can't do what they want to do with there sides, not to mention our cap being half the NRL'S cap and even less when you bring union into it. Superleague quality has been going down and down each year recently, in his opinion the influx of a few world renowned players could give the game the lift that it needs.

As for stopping one side running away with it, how many times did Leeds win the league in the last 7 years? Also as I said earlier on in the thread, how can you expect a team fighting for its SL life to spend money in any other area than the first team? Its ok for the top 4/5 clubs there's not a chance they will go down.