I was comparing pre season to pre season and factors like Fielden'injury and the fact George never got a game would not have been known this time last year. The two London lads have a bit to prove but if they step up we will probably be a stronger unit especially if Patrick puts behind him an indifferent 12 months and Ta'ai continues to improve even though he will probably never live up to the hype we saw here and elsewhere before he played a game. We also did not know this time laat year LOD was off and 2014 will produce a few twists and turns too Im sure but the main thing is we are a settled squad and in this day and age gelling in 3 new faces into a winning outfit is a luxury and lets hppe we make the most of it.

i know what you are saying, if i had the choice of a fully fit fielden and o'donnell to go into the 2014 season id take them over kaufusi and bailey... but as it turned out the former didnt play much at all! hope we dont suffer the same fate on the incoming duo.

one thing is for certain is that broughton is way ahead of luke george... top top signing, bet he took a fair chunk of the salary cap though, must of been lined up for a while, might not of gone for him if we knew how well murphy was going to go on the wing!

i think this season will be harder to emulate what we did last, simply because we weren't expected to be up there challenging for so long, right up until august people were still expecting us to buckle and fade away.
i suppose last year we were a bit of an unknown quantity, the team that chokes etc, i think we surprised people by doing what we did and not what was expected of us.
this year teams will know just what we are about.
our goal this year surely has to be getting to the grand final or win the cup, so in that respect i would be happy with a top 4 finish.

Agreed on what we need to achieve.

Our squad is as settled as anyone's and we never seemed to like losing last season and after a defeat usually put our next opponents to the sword and that mentality can get us a long way

I honestly think we will be going all out to retain top spot and perhaps a distraction like a Challenge Cup Final may mean that does not happen but rattle off the wins early doors and if the end of the season stutters whilst we are still in as nice finishing position as happened with Wigan last year so be it but I think us more than any other top club rely on momentum and the more we boss our rivals week in week out the more we will achieve.

The only real thing we are missing is that killer instinct in the really big knockout games but the more we get into that position the chances of turning heartbreaking losses to triumphant wins increases and the more we show we can beat everyone home and away the better the chance of taking that final step which is what we really need.

We are better than last year, I think the additions will improve us, but more importantly the ones who we already had, last season showed alot of them what can be achieved with the right structures.

The team, coaching staff and support staff are alot more experienced having gone through it last season, they are more ready than not to improve on the things that didn't go so well.

Are we better than last season in a word yes.

I expect top 4 and a final, maybe win one

Spot on and not sure anyone bar Leeds can hold out such optimism and they are ageing far faster than we are.

Wigan and Wire will do well to start fast with them losing the players they have and Saints and Salford could be anything but in those early few weeks we need to stamp our authority on the league and any cracks in the make up of our opponents may be sorted in time but hopefully we are away and gone by then and if we do make any Finals we will go into them from a position of strength.

The League Leaders Shield has been a platform from which others have kicked on and gone on and won other things and we need to do the same and indeed if a bit of luck and injuries allow we should expect to be there and there abouts in everything.

Giants
Saints
Rhinos
Wolves
Warriors
Dragons
Codheads
Reds
Rovers
Tigers
Wildcats
Broncos
Vikings
Bulls

Giants top Bulls bottom = deap joy

well our captain does not want to finish top again

rlhttps://www.sportinglife.com/rugby-league/news/article/480/9120680/brough-wants-major-trophyrl

interesting comment about mcnamara, always said he wasnt wanted rather than brough not wanting to play for England.

i would like to see you do better than wigan, saints or leeds thought it was ace last season for you to be the most consistent team shows that it really was nathan brown holding you back good luck for the upcoming season

john kear thinks we are certain for a top 2/3 finish

rlhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v

everyone said we would fall away in the 2nd half of the season...we didnt.

now the aim is to go all the way in the play offs

the only reason u fell away in previous season is because nathan brown said he was leaving every year half way through.

soon as u got rid of nathan brown u win the league not a coincidence.

anyway great result for u guys yesterday love seeing wigan getting dominated in all areas. think u will finish top again but dunno if u got that extra gear to go into in high pressure matches hopefully u prove me wrong eh.

Decent start. Wouldn't be at all surprised if you went further than last years. Just put a tenner on you for the CC @ 13/2. Can't see all the hype for Wire this season TBH