Well the bookies haven't written us off. According to Sporting Life the favourite at 3 to 1 to win the Grand Final is - WIGAN.

I keep forgetting about Clubb, he is such an uninspiring player for me or has been he just slips my mind. To be fair to the lad though he has all the natural attributes to be a good player and clearly has a good mental attitude so he will probably and hopefully flourish in the Wigan environment.

Clubb ticks Wayne's box, ie big tall potential to be very athletic and mentally tough.

We have bags of options if it does not work out with the younger players, Gelling, and even the likes of Taylor and Pettybourne capable to fit in.

Assuming he stays Powell would be devastating running wide, but it probably is too much to expect him to be anything more than a Prop given his age and his lack of experience.

Very well analysed Jonh, but I think that any game time Hampshire gets should be mainly at halfback, let him get settled at halfback before subjecting him to exposure in the FB position.
Sam had a couple of seasons in the halves and got used to the systems and felt comfortable and settled in the team before moving to FB.
One player who I think could open a few eyes would be George Williams, I have seen him a few times in the U20s and a few times on Wigan TV, he seems to have an old head on young shoulders and is a great organiser.

If Hopkins settles you may have the seasons surprise package in the way hill was

I'm planning to bet pretty big this year on my team Hull KR so I've had a good look at the full squads of all the teams and I must admit Wigan's depth did surprise me, as did Huddersfield's.

On the flip side of that I do think the likes of Wire, Saints and Leeds do have better starting 17's than Wigan because although Bowen is a great signing and O'Loughlin is a great player your 6, 7 & 9 are nothing more than solid club players for their respective positions. But as I say, I do think there are real question marks about Leeds and Wire's depth in the forwards.

Your club's strength has been ethos, work ethic, preparation etc. rather than individual class of player and I do feel had Wire not lost players during the GF, they would have gone on to win the game pretty comfortably.

The good thing about the competition is that Huddersfield showed last season that a club has proven that significant progress can be made pretty quickly in terms of league places providing there's been some solid ground work in seasons before.

Hull KR's depth in the pack is as good as any in the whole competition IMO; Weyman, Poore, Costigan, A Walker, J Walker, Green, Cox, Larroyer, Langley - any set of forwards who don't turn up against them will get bullied off the park.

Hopefully London, Wakey and Bradford will get competitive squads together for the good of the league and it should be a good season.

I know everybody is entitled to an opinion but yours is really poor if you think Matty Smith and Blake Green are just solid squad players. I can't believe how good blake green has been when fit, best 6 we have had since Trent Barrett in my opinion, fantastic runner, good passer, fantastic organizer and an excellent kicker. I don't know when people will start to be honest about matty smith it reminds me of how people used to talk about Sam Tomkins when they couldn't accept he is a fantastic player.
I wouldn't swap our spine for any other in the league its head and shoulders above sthelens, wires, leeds, huddersfield and both the hull teams;
Bowen
blake green
Matty smith
McIlorum
O'loughlin
Aslong as you have average players who are willing to work their butts off that team will win trophies.
Im slightly worried about the forwards because i don't believe we have a true leader with experience at prop but then i think of how Taylor and flower developed last season and how pettybourne played during the world cup and realize we will be fine.

costigan will be your best tackler by a mile and Adam walker is your best prop by a mile but i won't be worrying and weyman his best years where 5 years ago and poore is a complete liability.

You can have an opinion without being arrogant with it. To say your spine is head and shoulders above Saints is ridiculous.

Roby is better than McIlorum and Walsh is better than Smith. Green and O'Loughlin are better than Hohaia than Wilkin I agree, and there isn't much between Lomax and Bowen. At this stage of their careers I wouldn't swap Lomax for Bowen.

How does that translate to you being head and shoulders above us?

Lomax has years in front of him, for that reason if I were in the position of swapping for Bowen I wouldn't. However at present Bowen is still a class above Lomax.

SOL is twice the player Wilkin has ever been.

Roby is better than Mick Mac at the moment, but I wouldn't leap around if we did a straight swap.

I haven't seen much of Walsh, he can only be an improvement on what you've had recently.

You honestly wouldn't be delighted if Roby signed for you? I don't believe that.

Walsh was in the top ten (joint 7th) in the Dally M voting this season. If he comes over with that form then he'll be the best 7 in Super League without a doubt.

I agree on O'Loughlin, he is far far better than Wilkin.

Either way, to suggest your spine is head and shoulders above ours is arrogant, ignorant and ridiculous.

bowen wil be the best fullback in super league if he stays fit but he had no problem last season. not arguing Lomax isn't close to him but Bowen has been there and done it with the best.
Green is one of the best 6 in super league and won't be surprised at the end of the season if goes back the NRL.
Matty smith will never be rated by st helens fans because he was former player but its hard to argue he wasn't fantastic last season. Luke walsh is a great player on his day but has already said he has a get out clause if an NRL come calling. still wouldn't swap them.
Roby is the best hooker in super league how he plays but McIlorum suits wigans play and is a fantastic player so i wouldn't exactly be ecstatic if we signed him and lost McIlourm.
and john wilkin isn't even close to o'loughlin.

so you could argue that Roby and Walsh still leave another 3 positions.

So you call having 3 out of 5 being head and shoulders above? Even though one of your 3 is Bowen and in your words there isn't much between him and Lomax?

yes of course it is. As a spine works together and not on individual playing merits i would say we have the best spine in the league last year showed how good it was. We lost the best player in super league and brought in one of top 5 NRL fullbacks to replace him, we will lose some match breaking plays but overall you would say bowen is a safer fullback. Not even mentioning the players who are backing up the spine Sam Powell, George Williams and Ryan hampshire. Sam Powell was the half back who cut Samoa to shreds for the England Knights.