My concern for 2025 is the quality of our spine and the ability of our relatively inexperienced centres.

Our spine in particular has questions marks across every position. Lino has struggled in SL, Russell has generally been back up. Trueman is quality but injuries have stunted his development.

Max has been outstanding this year but I do worry about his pace and he has been prone to defensive lapses however I hopeful a year out on SL has given him time to develop.

9 is my biggest concern, I think this is maybe our weakest position across the squad.

If I’m honest I’m thinking 10th in 2025 however I’m hopeful we can get into the top 8 in which case it will be an excellent return.

Our props/middles are undoubtedly our strength and hopefully those boys can lay a platform most weeks to get our spine playing on the front foot.

some really interesting viewpoints here... personally I don't have any expectations of next year other than we play to the best of our ability, each and every time we pull on the jersey.

sure we have some inexperience (and I include our middles who are, for the most part, unproven at super league level)... but I love that we have gone for younger players... and I can't wait to see their development.

I’m hearing Catalans away is last weekend in April, week before Magic.

I’ve booked a hotel on a book now pay later free cancellation for the Thursday to Monday of that weekend just in case the info isn’t right. .

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=12 ... 7168214109

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=12 ... 7168214109

Your spot on about our spine said the same and been shot down .9 is a big worry two inexperienced young players who are not ready for S L and the first choice Nine can tackle but no kicking game of speed for attack Got told at Championship final that Truman was a Marquee signing . If true it is a big risk for a player who as played less than half the games in two year .Hope you are right about the pack .they went well last year, but S L is a big step up .This year is a free hit at S L so if we are clear of the bottom 2 i will be happy

Most people agree that halfbacks is where the most uncertainty lies as it’s new combinations and there’s a degree of unknown. It could be great, it could click straight away or it could take time. But they are of SL quality for the most part. It’s okay to be apprehensive about this but it could just as easily turn out to be a good combination also.

Doyle is mid 20s and when you say not ready that’s your opinion but he went very well with a number of strong performances last season so I see no reason why he isn’t ready for SL.

Smith isn’t ready for week in week out but he’s an England academy international and will not let anyone down when required and gain good experience in SL.

I agree
I've no doubts about Doyle.
I think he'll be fine.

I get why Hood is an unimpressive starter, but he'll be fine for another year. And I'm confident Doyle can develop into a good SL player this year, with Smith getting a few minutes before coming into the 17 in 2026. And if - for whatever reason - those things don't happen, then I'm sure Mills will line up a signing. That's the crazy position we're in these days.

As for halves, that's obviously the big unknown. In Trueman I honestly believe we have potentially one of the top 5 halves in the comp, but he hasn't played a full season since 2019. That year he helped Cas to the semis, as he did in 2018. Olly Russell I'm not sure on, but let's give him a few games.

Has been said that teams or Sky cant change the time/day of fixtures.

Russell played at 9 for some matches ,got a good kicking game and can tackle never saw him run with ball so hard to judge speed

I hope that's right.

I live over 100 miles away, and advance train tickets are the only way I can get up reasonably cheaply. And advance tickets are only usually "cheap" if you can book them 2-3 months in advance.

("cheap" being a relative term here. Just not extortionately expensive!)

I hope we don't give to much away at the Xmas match !

Its five weeks away, and we haven't started pre season training yet... so I doubt very much there will be anything to 'give away'.

It's a training run but we need a real training run so we play our routines and do our best.
And then turn up in round 1 ready to go.
It's not like we've been invisible so far.
They know what Tom can do and I'm sure the know McMeekan will be in the front row

Back to Doyle, he really impressed me last season, hooker, in my opinion is the hardest position on the field, he brought energy when he was introduced, regarding not being ready, how are we supposed to know without him put up against the best. He’ll do well I have confidence in the lad