He needs to work on his left hook!

The fact is you won't be competing with most of it. Objectively, on the basis of your squad, the bookies have you tipped to finish bottom and you'd likely be second favourites against any of the Hull clubs, Widnes etc in the play offs. That means you'd have to travel away to two of Bradford, Leigh, London - all MUST win games against full time sides after a tough, demoralising season with the inevitable casualty list.

Go have another look at Wakey's squad and tell me you fancy that.

Same as every season then. Just remind me how many times we have finished bottom of Super League...

I'm not saying our squad is world beating but we've had much worse squads and still managed to avoid the wooden spoon. It's a long season and nobody can predict the twists and turns that will inevitably happen. To predict the league order based on a lazy bookies tip before a ball has even been passed is nothing short of stark staring bonkers barking madness.

Besides, have the bookies actually tipped league position or just shown their liability list in ascending order?

The middle 8 will be tough, and in effect the same teams will be competing in that group year on year. Should a championship gain promotion they'll be in the middle 8 the following year suffering the same 'demoralising season' as the SL clubs have this year.

I certainly didn't finish last season "demoralised"!

There was a bit in mid season pre Webster that had me staring into the clouds in my coffee but that lifted well before the end of the season after wins over Warrington, Salford, Widnes Hull FC, Wigan, Leeds etc

Any team “going up” will have to strengthen quite a bit if they’re to stay there. It’s all very well having a much bigger SL salary cap but you need to have the money in the first place to be able to spend it.

I can see quite a few of the same teams meeting in the middle eight for the next few years.

Which in effect will create an 8 team Super League and the calls to contract the league even further will arise.

I can see this going the same way as when we used to have club games against the Aussies. A great idea in concept, but once you get regular drubbings, it will get dropped and revert to one-up, one-down, with a Championship grand final.

I know we are partly to blame, because of the interest in the "million pound game" created by our late season run in 2006, but if no surprises are thrown up, and no super league team ever gets relegated (and they win each million pound game convincingly), it won't last long.

The problem is that they messed up franchising by making it about reconsideration. We were dead men walking in 2011 due to our perceived exit. It should have been about expansion only, not about replacement, which would have encouraged investment. The only thing they would need to do then is work out how to make the bottom half interesting once the season wore on.

I agree about the reconsideration issue. Teams should be allowed to build their businesses and benefit from a consistent background. The league should be added to as and when a team feels ready for the top flight, whether they be traditional or expansion teams. As numbers grow conferences ought to be introduced to keep season length down. To keep interest in the lower half a secondary competition running alongside the grand final should be brought it.

No neither did I, in fact quite the opposite.

Who'd have thought at the start of last season Cas would have had the season they had or Widnes making the 8, not many. Going off what the bookies say is pretty stupid imo and doesn't tell you that much at all.

As others have said there are so many twists and turns in a season, it's very hard to say what's definitely going to happen, especially in the half of the table we'll be competing

I'm not optimistic for the season ahead, if I'm honest. The end of season saviour one year is often the pariah the next. 2004 play-offs to "out, out, out" in 2005. Tony Smith kept us up in 2005 but was out on 'arris mid-season the following year. Even Agar showed promise in 2012, although to be fair most people regarded that as unexpected, a blip before we went back to "out, out, out".

The first part of the season will make or break Webster, I suppose. Keeping up the end of season form is hoping for too much, but I'd take wins against the teams we should be capable of beating (the two Hull clubs, Widnes, Salford, Cas, etc). The fitness reports do concern me though, because it reduces the chances of hitting the ground running.

On the other hand, with the new structure, momentum at the back end of the season is better than at the beginning. I'm expecting to be in the middle eight. Anything above that is good.

That's my take on it, momentum at the business end is key. To start like a house on fire and fade just when it matters most would be a killer.

I am optimistic, but only as you say because my expectations are of middle 8.
If we remain in the last 4 of super league year on year, I'll be happy.

Problem with that is that if then Hull game is rearranged for the world club challenge weeked as mooted then 5 of our first 6 games will be against teams that based on predictions would probably be classed as 'bottom half' sides. A slow start could give us too much catching up to do and a bottom 2 finish in prospect giving us a disadvantage come those 7 'middle 8' games and a large target on our heads for the championship sides. If anything for me we should aim for a fast start then target certain games throughout the season, resting key personnel in selected games where a positive result is less likely so the guys can fire towards the end. Running with a small squad then the management of our major players workload has to be key if we want to avoid that 4th/5th place play off lottery.

This year is a tricky one for us.
To finish in the top 8, we pretty much need everything to go well for us.
7th or 8th would be the highest possible finish from the optimists at the club.

We are more likely to finish 10/11/12. Therefore it is better that we start slowly and finish strong and try to take as much confidence and
momentum into the middle 8 qualification league.

If things go well in the early part of the season maybe we could change our outlook but, it does appear that we will be doing battle with
the Championship pretenders.

Although there could be some exciting games in there, the new structure is just contrived nonsense and it doesn't really give clubs at the lower end of SL chance
to improve and develop, because there will be a relegation league to escape every season.

Equally, for the clubs at the top end of the Championship who may one day gain promotion, they will be back in the qualification league the following season.
This is of course better than no promotion at all but, 1 up 1 down (or 2 up 2 down) would have been a far more sensible option.