If Wakefield finish bottom then a lot of teams will have to have improved a lot on last year. Wakefield made the top 8 and the CC semi final on the back of only winning 1 of their first 7 games and losing their coach part way into the season.
I honestly believe that games would have gone differently had Salford not been deducted points. There were games in the run up to the CC semi where Wakefield looked to throw the game away when they had the lead to preserve players fitness and prevent further squad injuries.
It's hard to tell at the moment as most teams haven't completed recruitment, but with a more stable squad which has a good mix of experience and youth, a full preseason, and a bit of luck, I think Wakefield will be easily competing at a good level where they can pick off wins against any team. Top 4 is a stretch too far, but top 8 should be readily achievable.

I agree here Bentleberry.

Also, players like Crowther, Batchelor, Morris and Moules will be better for that bit of experience they got toward the latter part of season.

Maybe if we brought these into the squad at varying times next year, rather than pretty much all together at the deep end, plus with 3 half backs in the squad, then potentially the squad can be rotated, leaving some of our senior players that bit fresher longer

That's it, they played because they had to play, not to develop them as it should be.

Last season can be broken into three really distinctive parts;

1.(first third) Lots of failure and fatigue, a lack of confidence and self belief in the squad

2. (Second third) self belief and a new found freedom on the pitch, players running hard and expansive, opposition teams became clueless on how to play against the squad

3. (Final third) a mounting list of injuries took its toll, play slowed down and became more predictable in an attempt to preserve the players we had. Once the top 8 was secure and the CC was lost then it quickly turned into an off season and the players seemed to treat the games more like friendlies, willing to try new ideas and plays but lacking the depth of squad to be able to really commit

Just as another point; had we played to the same standard and winning rate under Smith as we did under Chester, Wakefield would have finished the regular 23 rounds on 28 points (possibly more)

Think it depends on who's coming in to the front row. Currently we barely have enough to field 2 props so a lot for me will depend on who fills the front row. We will see

Disagree partially. Yes Dorn and Gale provided opportunities but at least half of his finishes were other worldly, including the one where he didn't have to ground the ball over the line to score against Salford.

That's right. In Denny's world, you don't have to ground the ball. In Peyroux's world, grounding the ball isn't enough. In the first, it was obvious from the footage that he hadn't but the video ref still gave it. In the latter, it was obvious he had, but the ref wouldn't give it. It's hard to actually work out who scored what.

My own view: slightly worried. Chester had a great 2015 at KR, with a Wembley trip and a cruise through the middle 8's, but the close season saw his team turn to nothing. I'm concerned about the same happening with us, although Kear may steady that ship.

To be fair though Slugger, I don't think Chessie was given a fair crack at Hull KR in 2016. Much to our benefit.

He was gone after 3 games in the season, which I just think is too soon for anyone.

Looking back at their results over those 3 games, a creditable draw with Cas, an away defeat to Warrington, and home defeat to us. In the defeat to us, I think they actually out scored us try wise, but failed to kick a goal. The usually reliable Mantellato I believe got injured in the first game, and either Dixon or Sio was the goalkicker that day

The club were cruelly hit through injury right from the start of the season

Yes, you're probably right. I wonder if there was something else going on, because 3 games was very quick.

I think Jamie Peacock was what was going on, empire building and cocked it up

Wouldn't be a start to a new season without us being predicted to finish bottom.

Stupid thing at this stage is a few teams haven't done any recruiting and most have done little, so how can you predict.

It could well have been Slugger.

However casting our minds back to around round 3 a kot of fans thought things were quite rosy with Smith. I was certainly surprised when he quit.

However behind closed they werent for a couple of months prior.

Who knows, hard to say

Doesn't matter, we can pack up after about half a dozen games and concentrate on the middle 8's next season and when it comes to the crunch, signing a brand new team.
That should get some fans foaming at the mouth but strangely enough,not much was mentioned about teams 'strengthening' for the middle 8's this year!