Interesting to see on the VT's 2013 prediction thread most people are tipping us to make the Top 8.

Not sure how you get that? Take out the Wakey fans and the majority think we won't make the 8 - although 2 people have us as high as 6th! I'll take that!

It will be a miracle if Jeffries bombs us out of the game .
Is he not back in Australia?

Good point well made.
I forgot.....though rumours of his previous exits to Oz have been greatly exaggerated in the past so you can forgive me for not hanging on to that memory.

I'm not ignoring anything - but being a real fan ( ) I'm backing us to rise above these issues!

It will be interesting to see how teams handle Tim Smith this season; every SL coach will have seen how important he is for us and how dangerous he is with ball in hand - expect opposition teams to at least attempt to rush, crowd and generally clatter him at every opportunity.

Looking forward to seeing him show a few up!

it is a different thing knowing who is the danger man and stopping him

many teams know cas revolve around chase, yet are still unable to control him (generally the sign of a good player) and i hope it is the same with tim smith this year.

i did notice that schofield made no wild predictions (e.g. another naked run) if he was wrong, especially after been goaded by the salford fans on twitter last night! he might have learnt his lesson.

i think we are a top 8 side, and we will be there at the end of the season.

Will be nice to see teams worried about us and trying to find ways to stop Smith rather than usually us chasing round like headless chickens, Smith is a class act and can handle the extra attention he will get coming his way, he may also thrive of it and use it to our advantage,
Really looking forward to this season and 6th is very achievable

He's not really wrong in my opinion, we played a fair few teams at the right time at the end of the season but fair play you can only beat whats infront of you but if we dont have Smith's form for the 2nd half of the season then we would have a real gap that needed filling in.

We are probably just a bit behind KR and Bradford, on a par with London and a bit infront of Widnes, Salford and Cas in my opinion and usually a fancied team under achieves and a unfancied team has a nice run but we should be in the mix for the 8th play off place realistically.

Every team in SL spends a large amount of time doing video analysis of their next opposition, they search for, find and then study the smallest traits in both the team and it's individuals. Tip sheets are produced by members of the coaching staff and every player MUST become familiar with them, they then make changes to the way they attack/defend some are so subtle you might not even notice and some are significant. Make no mistake, our opposition will do this prior to every game this year just as they did last year.
Tim Smith was not a surprise to opposition teams last year, they had studied him and the rest of the team and had a game plan to place him under pressure, they'll try the same this year but it isn't anything new and won't be something Tim Smith and Richard Agar haven't dealt with in every game.

IMO it won't be an extra factor for us to contend with in 2013

Lighten up man!

I never question anyones support as the level is something that cannot be measured and, whether Rose Tinted or not, we all (to coin a phrase) dream the same dream.

It's gonna be a good year!

I thought "second season syndrome" was a generally accepted sporting phenominomininominom? How would you explain that? Granted it's not exactly the same as Smith is a seasoned pro and not a rookie breaking through but I think the wider point remains.