You forgot Cas to start well and some of the Cas Forum members to declare us Team of the centuary only for our forwards to get a knock and lose to Hull KR at the end of season and finish outside the 8

Is this Groundhog Day?

Harlequins, Salford, Huddersfield - you're right, no way you'll be worse than them 3

To be fair to Hudds they got a decent average last season but whether they made any money I don't know. Think a season ticket was only about £50 and I know for a fact they flood the college with freebies. Ticks boxes with the rfl though so can't blame them

Looking around the other boards there are lots of optimistic fans putting their own team in the top 8 but in my opinion it cannot be predicted just yet so I'll go with the groupings of teams option

Top 5
Warrington
Saints
Wigan
Leeds
Catalans

6-11
Hull
Huddersfield
Hull KR
Wakey
Bradford
Cas

Bottom 3
London
Salford
Widnes

The way I see it at the moment, I can't do any more than separate the top half from the bottom half.

[uTop 7:[/u
Warrington
Leeds
Saints
Wigan
Hull
Huddersfield
Catalans

Any of these could make the GF and win it

[uBottom 7:[/u
Wakefield
Hull KR
Castleford
Bradford
London
Salford
Widnes

To finish in the play-offs we'd have to finish top of this group, which is a tough ask, but not impossible. I would say 8th would be an outstanding achievement for such a new group of players and coach and everything would have to go right from the off.

I would expect us to finish in the middle of this group and would not be disappointed with 11th. Anything above that would be a bonus.

Other targets would be:
beating an SL team in the challenge cup (who was the last one?)
increasing average attendance to well above 7k and towards 8k

and of course it's always nice to finish above Cas


and a positive result from the PI would be nice too

This is effectively a sister thread to ours on the Bulls forum: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=515210 They are pretty much interchangable in that, our optimists hope for a top 8 finish but think we'll be battling to get in the playoffs (the odd poster is riding a cloud-cuckoo to la-la land and thinks 6th). Equally your thread and ours are matched perfectly in that they fly completely in the face of what they are saying over on the VT. Accepted wisdom appears to be that Bradford are 8th to 10th and Wakey are bottom 3. I personally haven't a clue how Wakey will do but can someone tell me why there is such a major difference between what you think will happen and the way that you have seemingly been written off by others? That's not me being snide, I genuinely don't understand. Are they missing something? are you letting your heart rule your head? or is it a bit of both?

This is effectively a sister thread to ours on the Bulls forum: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=515210 They are pretty much interchangable in that, our optimists hope for a top 8 finish but think we'll be battling to get in the playoffs (the odd poster is riding a cloud-cuckoo to la-la land and thinks 6th). Equally your thread and ours are matched perfectly in that they fly completely in the face of what they are saying over on the VT. Accepted wisdom appears to be that Bradford are 8th to 10th and Wakey are bottom 3. I personally haven't a clue how Wakey will do but can someone tell me why there is such a major difference between what you think will happen and the way that you have seemingly been written off by others? That's not me being snide, I genuinely don't understand. Are they missing something? are you letting your heart rule your head? or is it a bit of both?

Probably a bit of both.

I think the majority of people writing us off on the VT and elsewhere are guilty of being a bit lazy; they've missed the sweeping changes to our squad for next season and the gulf in quality between last season and next.

Equally, some WTW fans have got a bit carried away.

Quote Pumpetypump="Pumpetypump"This is effectively a sister thread to ours on the Bulls forum: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=515210 They are pretty much interchangable in that, our optimists hope for a top 8 finish but think we'll be battling to get in the playoffs (the odd poster is riding a cloud-cuckoo to la-la land and thinks 6th). Equally your thread and ours are matched perfectly in that they fly completely in the face of what they are saying over on the VT. Accepted wisdom appears to be that Bradford are 8th to 10th and Wakey are bottom 3. I personally haven't a clue how Wakey will do but can someone tell me why there is such a major difference between what you think will happen and the way that you have seemingly been written off by others? That's not me being snide, I genuinely don't understand. Are they missing something? are you letting your heart rule your head? or is it a bit of both?'" It seems people put us in the bottom two without much thought tbh, it's been going on for years and it's most fans default position for Trinity, so it's not going to change now. I mean even last year with the poor miss match squad we had, without the points deduction we wouldn't have finished in the bottom 2, this year we have a far stronger squad but it's still business as usual for most fans. To answer your question though it's a bit of both, some Trinity fans have got a bit wrapped up in the good feeling around the place and all the new signings, not that that's a bad thing mind. I personally just want us to be competitive all season and take some points off the big boys, finishing around 9th or 10th would be a good start to the new staff & team.

Quote Pumpetypump="Pumpetypump"This is effectively a sister thread to ours on the Bulls forum: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=515210 They are pretty much interchangable in that, our optimists hope for a top 8 finish but think we'll be battling to get in the playoffs (the odd poster is riding a cloud-cuckoo to la-la land and thinks 6th). Equally your thread and ours are matched perfectly in that they fly completely in the face of what they are saying over on the VT. Accepted wisdom appears to be that Bradford are 8th to 10th and Wakey are bottom 3. I personally haven't a clue how Wakey will do but can someone tell me why there is such a major difference between what you think will happen and the way that you have seemingly been written off by others? That's not me being snide, I genuinely don't understand. Are they missing something? are you letting your heart rule your head? or is it a bit of both?'" It seems people put us in the bottom two without much thought tbh, it's been going on for years and it's most fans default position for Trinity, so it's not going to change now. I mean even last year with the poor miss match squad we had, without the points deduction we wouldn't have finished in the bottom 2, this year we have a far stronger squad but it's still business as usual for most fans. To answer your question though it's a bit of both, some Trinity fans have got a bit wrapped up in the good feeling around the place and all the new signings, not that that's a bad thing mind. I personally just want us to be competitive all season and take some points off the big boys, finishing around 9th or 10th would be a good start to the new staff & team.

Excellent summary - very sensible and realistic conclusion!

Definately. I wish you all the best for 2012 and here's hoping we rub it in the faces of those that have written us off.

Whilst you are right in that this years squad is better than last years, i think that goes for a lot of clubs who are in the bottom half. The way i see it, Wakefield have two problems, firstly they have recruited a lot of players, obviously something they needed to do but that will mean a squad which is much less settled, less chemistry in attack, less structure in defence. Its always the way when there are large turnovers in players and that will affect Wakefield more than others.

Also, the bottom half of the league is much stronger than it was last year and the top half deeper, Wakefield have improved, Widnes have a better squad than crusaders did, Salford will be more settled and London have signed some real quality. What we will see is the clubs at the lower half all taking points off each other with the difference being the points the can take off the bigger sides. However whilst the bigger sides have used games against the lower sides to rest/blood players its not something they will do because the top sides will all be taking points off each other and cant afford to risk a loss against the lower sides so i also think we will see fewer points taken off the top teams by the bottom.

That means that if Wakefield click and get a few early wins on the board and can be consistent against the teams around them and that middle section of the league (hull fc, hull kr, Huddersfield, bradford) then they will be up around 8 with a few games to go and can look to squeeze in. Unfortunately for them the opposite is also true, early season there is Widnes who will have been building towards kick off for three years, promoted teams almost always play above expectation first game, Hull KR would probably be favourites, Bradford could easily go either way, Hull, Hudds, Warrington, Catalans would all be heavy favourites against Wakefield, London away is rarely easy, Cas derby you cant predict, before what is always a tough game against wigan. Wakefield could very easily lose their first 10 games without playing particularly badly, at that point you are pretty much a drift and done for the year.

You generally need 13 wins for play-offs, which means you need to be looking at 4/5 wins in those first 10 games, that looks a tough job for Wakefield in my opinion. I think they should be realistically looking for 10 wins which will put them about 11th.