Your first sentence makes no sense. How can teams not understand where anothers strength is, all you had to do was look at our pack as soon as the squads were settled and it's right, FC have a huge pack, that's where they are going to focus on breaching us. To say teams weren't ready and are going to be more ready for us this year is totally unfounded and illogical.
What happened was we had probably the best pack in SL, we had most of our big hitters for most of the season far more than other teams, that meant we were able to make headway through the forwards more often than not. it's not that teams weren't 'ready', it's just that we had more firepower more often.

What we offered last season was predictable, it's just that the opposition didn't have enough to overcome it.

Head says 4th heart says 1st.

My head thinks that we won't be as lucky with injuries and other teams will be better at dealing with our style of play.

My heart thinks that we'll smash 'em down the middle and we'll score for fun out wide. 20 tries each for Shaul, Fonua and Albert.

I hope teams concentrate on our pack as feel we have some really good power and strike in the outside backs this year. Although a bit loose at times in the last two friendlies, I think we have seen we are going to throw the ball about, last year if our pack couldn't get on top, we didn't have the back and halfs to unlock defences, I feel with that that with our backs this year.

tend to agree with your heart
We just need to keep our left edge more involved as out right side will see a lot more ball with Kelly there.

Hoping and think we will get top 4, where in the top 4 I don't know. We should have the squad to do it, just will depend on injuries and making sure people behave as they should. I personally don't care about the cup this year, the wembley win finally was the greatest thing ever. I want us to kick on in the league and really go for it.
(another cup win would be nice mind you )

Hopes:
I hope we back up last season with a strong year and a trophy.

Expectations:
I think on paper we have a top5 squad. Top8 should be a bare minimum (baring a catastrophe on the injury front). I think Wigan in particular & Warrington's squads are stronger than ours and I reckon they'll be top2 by a fair distance. I expect us to be fighting it out with Saints & Cas for a playoff spot, and a strong defence of the cup.

Predictions:
Wigan
Warrington
Saints
Hull
Cas
Leeds
Catalans
Wakefield
Salford
Leigh
Hudds
Widnes

Rovers, Toulouse, London & Feath top4 from the Championship.
Rovers vs Hudds as the £1m game. Hudds to stay up.

6th or 7th

Tough division this year . I hope our expectations have not been built up too high ?
A top 6 finish is a must .

Think we'll be top4 but got a nagging feeling we'll still fall short of Old Trafford, but then again I didn't see last year coming at all...my crystal ball is on the blink!

Top 4 and a good cup run. Pretty much the same as my expectations for last season.
Hopefully not lost any of that tremendous team spirit we had last year, although I think Frank played a massive part in that. We have strengthened in the backs but look a bit light in the forwards. Hopefully we can do as well injury wise in 2017 as we did in 2016.

As a few others have mentioned we need the younger players to step up and show they are capable as and when the time comes.

Be nice to win more silverware but as we all know those big games are generally tight affairs that are settled by the odd mistake by a player or an official. You need a good run of luck as well as skill to win trophies.

Hope....league leaders and challenge cup and grand final winners
Expectations....a tough start with a few grind out wins with youth taking part in team selections to save the 1st teamers for the tough games and late on in the season with minimum injuries
Prediction....A roller coaster ride with Hull fc again this season...hang on to your hats

We'll be better equipped in the forwards now and more balanced that we won't be carrying a player for more than half the season who barely did 20 minutes a game in the wrong position far too often.
Nice bloke I'm sure, good for morale off the pitch, no doubt, on the pitch he won't be missed in my personal opinion, did some good things but that was far too infrequent for a marquee player.
BAcks we are stronger and if kelly does his thing we could be scoring a heck of a lot more points than last season which would be bloody fantastic

Last year's season could be described as the Lord Mayors Show. Hope this year is not the Dust Cart!

I think with Frank, most of us expected him to slot into the 2nd row channel and make barnstorming runs, rather than predominantly down the middle.

Whether that was purely Radders tactics to play him in bursts down the middle, or Franks fitness dictating his usage I'm not sure.


Whilst his minutes on the pitch weren't great and I agree we should've got more from a marquee player, his stats say that whilst he was on, he was pretty effective (but unspectacular) at getting us up the field:

270 Carries (Manu 278, Ellis 255, Mini 246)
2,162 Meters (Ellis 1819, Manu 1,804, Mini 1,759)
20 Offloads (Mini 14, Manu 13, Ellis 11)
34 Tackle Busts (Mini 91, Manu 49, Ellis 26)

This is what worries me a little about the bench this year, I'm not sure we've replaced his go forward yet.

That's my worry.