It will equally hard for him to break into the second row at Trinity.

I was answering the post above mine, Kirmond has 2 years to run

^^^^^this.
As much as Fergie and Murphy are good players, they would add little to our squad in these departments.
As suggested cover in the half backs (possibly) and front row is more important.
For me the important business was more about securing the likes of Amor, Smith & Sykes.
Looking forward to 2013 and hope we continue to upset the pundits, although even with a slightly improved squad; eighth may be difficult.
Aim for the stars, reach the moon and all that!!

Apparently Trinity are still in talks with Adam Gledhill and Jordon Grayston is still training with the club? Possibilities.

The top 7 from last season will, without doubt finsh in the top 8. It is beyond reasond argument to suggest that any of those 7 will miss out on the 8. All the remaining sides have a good chance of making the 8th spot, the side that has the best luck with injuries and has a great team spirit will finish 8th. Last season we had the team spirit and lets be fair were basically injury free.

Ooh look - Mr Happy is here!

I predict that one of the 7 won't make it, meaning that there are 2 places available to the rest - including us.

I reckon we have a really good chance, but we have made a name for ourselves now - hence clubs will be prepared for us, and we will need to have a decent run injury wise - i.e. wrap Tim Smith in cotton wool now!!!

Jordan Grayston is definitely going over to Australia.

Guys
injury free- Aiton, Collis, Southern and Amor all had injuries and not forgetting Ali's migraine against Salford. Just start to beleive it that we did well cos we played well and for that we don't need an excuse!

And Mellars with his eye, which resulted in us brining in Lee Smith.

It would be worth considering the Bulls back in the eight, they were competitive last season and there has yet to be the fire sale of players many expected (so far).
Hudds could well drop out other than that I really don't see any big changes I'd say six from eight with a fair degree of certainty.
As for us, it'll be a tough ask to maintain eighth but it should be a realistic target and as well as keeping Smith and Sykes on the park we welcome Poore to strengthen (hopefully) the front row and have Aiton back.
With Sykes and Smith pulling the strings from game one its fingers crossed.

I'm sorry but I'm a bit stunned that some people are actually suggesting we suffered any serious level of injuries last season - because we didn't especially towards the end. Only Southern had an injury that troubled him out most of the season. The rest were very moderate indeed and easily covered. There was no glut of injuries in any position and at no point did we put out a team that wasn't competitive at least on paper. We were lucky. Nothing wrong with that, all teams need luck and all teams that do well usually have a injury free season.

But come on, the gods shined in that respect last year.

Of course we played well, no one doubts that. However we were able to play well because we had most of our best players available most of the time. That's nothing to do with believing, that is pure logic

good to be discussing why we were so good.........but my point is that southern was injured most of season(agreed) but surely losing Aiton at the time must have been a massive blow to us (we had to recall Ellis) and the guys all upped their games and played very well.................

Agreed, comparitively speaking we were pretty lucky with regards to injuries last season.