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.

I doubt anyone cares what you think

Where's the evidence that a new team will take so long to gel well enough to be competitive? I know it will take a few games for combinations to build and for understanding to reach a level where it works well on the field but I think you seriously overplay it.

I don't see where the teams around us are that much better than they were last year, London have a couple of potentially good recruits but there's also a long tradition of NRL forwards massively under delivering so there's no guarantee that Londons star signings will be anything special.

The rest of your post just describes the nature of every sport that uses league tables to determine who the Champions are, oh hang on a minute, we have a five week mini league to determine ours.

Without being rose tinted and over optimistic I think we'll finish between 9th & 7th.

I dont think its a matter of being competitive, I think Wakefield will be competitive but you can be competitive and still lose. Thats what i was trying to say, Wakefield could play well lose all those games, similarly I wouldnt be massively surprised if they win 7/8 of those games which would put them in a wonderful position for challenging for the play-offs. Thats why i think those first 10 games are so important, you play a lot of the teams around you in a fairly short space of time.

To be fair I hardly ever agree with Smokey, but his opinions here are fair enough here...

That would be the opinion that Wakefield will struggle because of the huge turnaround in playing staff, but Widnes will do OK as they are newly promoted (I guess they have the same team that was crap last year do they, or do they have a massive turnover of playing staff too?).
The same opinion that has Salford as much more settled even though their coach left them in the lurch 3 months into his contract and left them with a coach they didn't deem to be good enough when interviewing previously.

I'm not rose-tinted enough to see us make the top 8 but I would still put us above those 2 in the table and probably London as well, and maybe Cas depending on how fit Rangi Chase stays.

There are 7 sides who will definitely finish above us. Those being Warrington, Wigan, St Helen's, Leeds, Catalan, Huddersfield and Hull.

After that there's nothing much between the rest barring Widnes. And it's a case of which club fairs the best with numerous factors. It's quite conceivable that we could finish 8th but also just as likely we might finish 13th.

So long as we're competitive and don't fade away at the back end of the season as we use to under Kear then I'll be happy

Beat me to the punch - SmokeyTA has reinterpreted reality to suggest that WTW will struggle next season, then summarised competitive sport in general to emphasise his point. Within a few posts, he'll be split-quoting as if his life depended on it and eventually, will disappear in a puff of logic.

New year, same 5hit.

It doesn't really matter what supporters of other clubs think of us, where we'll finish, who we'll beat or our recruitment policy. Year on year they've come on here with their predictive tables and 99 times out of 100 they have us in the bottom 2. What happens year on year ( barring last year, granted ) is; we consistently challenge the top teams always beating a few, lose a few we should really win against sides below us and around us, but have in the few seasons before last season regularly challenged for the play offs. We know we're not the greatest team on earth but we are rarely, if ever in that bottom 2 slot those blinkered fans seem to think we belong in but I just love it when we stuff it up 'em in the great Wakefield Trinity style!

As an outsider looking in I tend to agree that it will take time before ur sides playing its best, which IMO means you may make a late push for a playoff spot, I think id look at this as a season of consolidation, how pleased are you with the players you've signed?

Your insecurity is ridiculous, I didn’t say Widnes would do well, I said they would be up for their first game back in SL which will probably mean they play above themselves in that one game. That isn’t a particularly controversial opinion nor is it any anti-wakefield rant.

Nor have I ‘summarised competitive sport’ just a simple observation that you play a lot of the teams around, who you would be looking to beat early in the season.

The funniest part of it is that I said that Wakefield will be around 11th, predictions from the next two Wakefield fans ahead of Salford, Widnes and London, and possibly Cas, which translates as 11th or 10th in the table, the next one, between 8th and 13th. Yet because I said it somehow the collective insecurities of the Wakefield clique has sent them into some strange group hissy fit. Its odd, but quite funny to watch