The League positions at this stage of the season don’t generally lie and I think the top 4 at present i.e. Wigan, Warrington, Saints and Huddersfield will start to pull away from the others who have shown themselves to be quite a bit short of top notch team standards. The exception to this is Leeds, who seem to be recovering from their poor start, I was particularly impressed with their performance against Hull at the weekend. They should now start to overtake most of the clubs above them and move into the top 5. There is always the chance that another club or two may make a late season surge like Wigan in the past but I don’t think any of them have the squad capable of doing that this year. I Think it would be quite easy for us to lose to any of these top teams and it just shows the value of the good start we have made to the season which has given us a fair bit in hand over the others. I don’t want to be disrespectful to the remaining clubs as I think it is likely that the top clubs will lose to clubs outside the top level, but this always happens on a exceptional basis and indeed we have already achieved that distinction against Bradford. What distinguishes a top club from the rest is that slip ups don’t happen very often.

I think the difference to recent seasons is that there has always been a gap between Saints/Leeds and the rest, now IMO we have 5 breakaway clubs which makes for a much more interesting competition. The big question in my mind would be have my view of the top 5 clubs reached the level achieved by Leeds and Saints in the past or have the clubs evened out at a lower level. I suspect the latter but have a feeling that we have more improvement in us this season despite being top of the League.

I am looking forward to finishing the first half of the fixtures and the match ups from teams seeking revenge on us in the reverse games later in the season, not something we have experienced for some time! I can’t see us being quite as successful in the second half of the season – too many good teams with points to prove, but as I said earlier we do have a fair bit in hand, and other top clubs will lose as well so I think we still have an excellent chance of finishing top of the pile.

Anyway, enough of my unstructured ramblings, just my thoughts on the season so far and what may happen later. What do others think?

I was just going to say that. You see sides often have good regular seasons and then fade away when the lack of squad depth begins to tell. Huddersfield last year for example had a poor play off effort. Hull KR did little either. A good regular season doesn't always convert to a good play off run.

Wigan's problem may be making the play offs very early then stuttering about waiting for those games to come. That'll be a test if it happens. That may happen to Warrington as well, they have very little postive play off experience (think they've only ever won 1 game) and that might tell in September.

Then the Cup Final might get in the way of Grand Final attempts. That perhaps buggered Huddersfield last year? Far too early to call. Injuries, suspensions and desperation will all play a part. Squad depth will end up proving pivitol. I think we are already proving to be OK in that regard. Not sure St Helens for example have that luxury. If Eastmond went out long term for example, they'd have no chance!

Way too early to start getting ahead of ourselves.

That said we are looking good. Mentally much tougher.

Fully agree.

Quins.
Friday.
Smash em!

I have a very funny feeling we may get the Stains this year in one of the finals, hopefully we can and do them again!

you might not get to one