The teams that I fear are those that can gain big metres on the early plays and end up in a position to put attacking kicks in that they can challenge at the end of a set. That has been our Achilles heel all year.
Early in the season against Catalan at home Johnstone and Davies on the wings were eating up the metres and every kick that Abdul put in was challenged and they had a field day. Luckily for us Johnstone and Abdul are our of the team so that threat is not what it was.
However Hull KR can do that with Hall and Burgess , Hiku chewing up the metres and May or Lewis kicking so they do worry me.
It will all come down to containing those metres, pushing them back a few yards on those early tackles and making the opposition kick from their own 40m line.
I hope that Catalan can scrape into 6th as I think they play Hull FC and London and I think they don't quite have the personnel to trouble us in those areas.

If you fear anyone…
You will not be winning anything.

If you have no fear, it’s because you have the ability and the preparation correct.

It’s been along time, but me personally , I don’t fear anyone for this squad. I know we are the best team when we have it together, I’ve seen it. Just because it isn’t there now, doesn’t fear me for the play offs.

I admire your optimism, as I did your "we will win the lot" prediction a year or so ago.

We could easily have a CC final performance in any of the play off games.

Would it be seen as a disappointment if Wire didn’t make the Gf. Or looked upon as a season of progression under Burgess..

For me if we win a playoff game its a season of progress. Obviously we all want a GF win but we need to be realistic, we are outsiders this year.

Firstly, in response to the OP, I'm not really going to worry about who we meet in the play-offs. We'll get who we get, and it's up to us to be good enough on the day to beat them. As for the season as a whole, it has already been one of major progress in terms of level of performance, consistency, defensive determination, attacking quality, and development of exciting young players. Most of us, I think, feel much more optimistic than we did this time last year. Turning the potential into trophies is, as always, the elusive part, and I still fancy Wigan to win the GF this year, but Wire are certainly not without a chance.

We definitely have a chance, we will need to win 3 intense games of RL in a row across 2 weeks. This will require avoiding the big game "fatigue" as has been cited and also delivering our best game in a final (in contrast to our Wembley performance).

I really wouldn’t rule us out of top 2 just yet. See how HKR respond at the weekend. If they beat Leigh at their place after last weeks loss then fair play to em.

Yes fair play to them. In truth I cannot seem them losing 2 games, even if they lose 1 game and win the other the 59 points difference will take some over coming. First place is unassailable as Wigan will get at least 1 point across their 2 home games.

If they lose to Leigh by ten and we put a score on Hudds then it could all be closed….meaning they need to be Leeds (who could really need to win) by more than we beat London at home.

Saying all that typical Wire would lose to Hudds on Sat, but we’re not typical Wire any longer…..hopefully.

Quote: ratticusfinch "If they lose to Leigh by ten and we put a score on Hudds then it could all be closed….meaning they need to be Leeds (who could really need to win) by more than we beat London at home. Saying all that typical Wire would lose to Hudds on Sat, but we’re not typical Wire any longer…..hopefully.'" Although CTW has done very well to cover Dufty`s absence, we need a fit & in-form Dufty to beat the tight defences we will be up against in the play-offs. There is a chance that Dufty will be playing on Saturday at Huddersfield, which will allow him to ease his way back into the team. https://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/sp ... e-surgery/

Quote: ratticusfinch "If they lose to Leigh by ten and we put a score on Hudds then it could all be closed….meaning they need to be Leeds (who could really need to win) by more than we beat London at home. Saying all that typical Wire would lose to Hudds on Sat, but we’re not typical Wire any longer…..hopefully.'" Although CTW has done very well to cover Dufty`s absence, we need a fit & in-form Dufty to beat the tight defences we will be up against in the play-offs. There is a chance that Dufty will be playing on Saturday at Huddersfield, which will allow him to ease his way back into the team. https://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/sp ... e-surgery/

Ideally we leather Hudds and London to beef up that points margin and push for second, have a week off, freshen up for the big push. But that's optimistic.

We'll know a bit more before we turn out at Huddersfield and I think that you are being optimistic (Nowt wrong with that BTW).

I'm probably being pessimistic, but I've a feeling everything will be out of our hands and the conversation will be how do we keep everyone fresh with a dead rubber v London before "the big push"

This is brilliant. I had a feeling we'd be without Dufty until into the playoffs, resulting a snap decision to play him in a big game when not match fit. If he's really on the mend this means we can ease him back into it. Look at the difference French is making to Wigan now he's back.