Quote: ball-in-hand "1. Wigan.. Endless supply of talented youngsters and a coach prepared to encourage them to stretch the rules
2. Warrington.. Talented squad with a competent coach
3. St Helens.. Another team with excellent production line. Will win something but not until they retire ponderous John Wilkin
4.Catalan..How they get this team under the salary cap I will never know.
5.Hull....Its always going to be Hulls year and they always blow it. No change I think.
6. Castleford. Capable of beating anyone but no depth in there squad. We saw that last year and it looks like the same this year
7.Leeds.. . Can't be as bad a last year but I think the coach has run out of ideas.
8.Trinity...Will be more competitive this year but I can't see them winning many more games
9.Huddersfield.. Coach has got rid of what he thinks is dead wood ( no offence Kyle) but replaced then with Bradford dead wood.
10.Salford. Same squad as last year. Same result. The doctors pockets seem to be empty.
11.Leigh. Big money signing but as we have seen with Salford it doesn't make a team. Also coach doesn't impress me.
12.Widnes. Their only plus is that fake pitch. No playmaker no ideas'"
Seems a harsh comment.
An unknown quantity in SL certainly but in his 1st season as a head coach he couldn't really have done any better IMO. Won 21/23 in the league (1 draw, 1 loss) finishing 9pts ahead of 2nd placed London and then winning 6 out of 7 in the middle 8's leading Leigh comfortably into SL against the odds. More impressive considering he was thrown into the job just days before the start of the season due to Mr Rowley walking out 10 days before our season opener.
If a 90% win rate doesn't impress you then you must be a hard man to please!
Obviously Leigh were a big fish in a small pond last year and this season is another test altogether but IMO so far Jukes has made a cracking start to life as a Head Coach.