Think top 4 and realistically challenging for the finals has to be the aspirations for the club.
The cap spend and quality of recruitment both with staff and players has to dictate this now.

Consistency is key.

We don't have the turnover to be in the top 4 so 5th at best I'm afraid folks

Sorry, I forgot the obvious

but couldn't we be the anomaly this year?

SALFORD?????? You are Mrs B and I claim my £5.
Still no mention of defence coach but we’ll be competing for everything next year, especially a cheeky GF.

Whoosh



Mate, he was taking the Michael

This

So was I but doing a bit of trolling, she’ll be back as a Terminator said.

There have been 22 Grand Finals in the SL era I think. Of the 44 participants, 41 (93%) have been clubs of a size that means they don't get accounts exemptions like we do, ie they have greater resources - turnover/assets/employees - specifically Leeds, Saints, Wigan, Warrington and Bradford. The other 3 are us, Cas and Salford who are all "small" companies.

To reach a GF for a club like ours is exceptional, hence the media fairytale narrative of Salford this year. To "expect" us to do so? Well, you can understand how accusations of arrogance from other clubs' fans would arise. There are 4 clubs justifiably ahead of us in the queue from an expectations perspective, and all have benefactors of considerable personal wealth. We have a good fanbase but this is disproportionately important to us, as we have neither their size, nor the benefactor model of Huddersfield or Rovers.

I am looking forward to this season - we have a good squad particularly in the back row, and 3 decent halves. We are missing a Walmsley type prop however and I am concerned about Kelly's fitness with his concussion challenges. I see us as the bookies do - in the pack with Leeds, Catalans and Castleford but not in the top banding with Saints, Wigan and Warrington.

How can we be in the same group as one of the big 4? Surely that's a typo?

They've adjusted for Agar, silly. And obviously we have Radford

Or we'd have better odds?