[quote="boardwalkempire7":22ans0qh]We will be around the 6th place. We’ve got too many experienced winners in the team to be at the bottom end. Posters forget how bad most sl teams were last season.[/quote:22ans0qh] genuine question do you think your squad is above 6 other teams including the likes of leigh salford leeds ? i'd say at a push 7th if abdull plays 100% and plays week in week out, hes the best 7 in SL when he's firing no disputing it

1.Wigan 2.Wire 3.Rovers 4.Catalan 5.Saints 6.Leigh 7.Leeds 8.Hull FC 9.Salford 10.Wakefield 11.Castleford 12.Huddersfield Wigan benchmark team, the team to beat for me, think Warrington will improve a little and can see them pushing for GF, KR lost Purcell a massive loss IMO and brought in an old ill disciplined replacement. Catalan/Saints could go either way but a slow start for Wellens could see him sacked. Think same with Leigh/Leeds but think Leigh slightly better for me, I've put us an optimistic 8th purely on the fact Salford got financial issues and can see them losing a few key players and they haven't got a massive squad as it is. Wakefield be a solid 10th, Castleford and Huddersfield both struggle a big fight for last for me.

We won't finish top 6, in fact we won't even trouble it, 8th at best IMO. To be honest I'll be delighted if we just improve, start moving on the right direction. If we can get 2/3 players from the current crop of youngsters to be good SL players then we could be fighting for 6th in 2026.

[quote="Theeaststander1":pfn8lhcj]genuine question do you think your squad is above 6 other teams including the likes of leigh salford leeds ? i'd say at a push 7th if abdull plays 100% and plays week in week out, hes the best 7 in SL when he's firing no disputing it[/quote:pfn8lhcj] I think best we can realistically hope for is top of the bottom 4 clubs, however big question marks over leeds and salford for me, either of who could go OK but also tank. The other big unknown is injuries. If everyone has their first choice 17 available every week then I'd say wigan to finish top, with rovers and catalans fighting for 2nd place, wire, saints and leigh 4th to 6th, leeds and salford 7th and 8th with us, cas, hudds and wakey 9th to 12th, however most teams have thin squads so injuries will play a massive part in where you finish. Anyone confident of us finishing 8th or higher is deluding themselves IMO. We have a new coach, plenty of mid 30's players and some with poor injury records. If we finished 8th and were consistent all season I'd say this squad has probably over delivered

I must be deluded then Apart from Wigan this current super league is bang average

It is nice to see some people have confidence in the squad and that a 6th place finish is achievable, but for me we would be banking on a few sides better than us to have a bad year which does feel pretty unlikely. There has been emphasis on the next three years, Mylers and Cartwrights contracts expire in 2027 along with key players such as Asiata and Abdull, and till then the owners won't be taking a penny out of the club. The blueprint they are working towards seems like 2025 Season - Be competitive again, get fans back onside and give us something to build on. 8-9th place will be seen as progress. 2026 Season - Challenging for top 6 will be seen as an expectation rather than ambition. 5-6th place finish would be the target. 2027 Season - Consolidating ourselves as a top 6 club whilst pushing for a top 4 finish. 6th place would be the minimum, 4th place or above would be the aim. Obviously only a plan, we could reach the end goal quicker or of course not at all, but its nice to see after several years of negativity that there is something to look forward to.

[quote="Hullfc-white":1n1c8ycf]I must be deluded then Apart from Wigan this current super league is bang average[/quote:1n1c8ycf] It isn't the standard it once was, but go from 11th andc3 wins to top 6, is very unlikely to happen. Our recruitment has been about as good as it could be, b had we go Lam, Whitehead and another overseas player instead of Seizer, we would have been a different prospect. Unfortunately it's been hard to recruit, but think Myler has done as good a job as he could do. I just can't see this squad finishing higher than 6 other teams as it stands.

[quote="HU8HFC":1lex419r]It is nice to see some people have confidence in the squad and that a 6th place finish is achievable, but for me we would be banking on a few sides better than us to have a bad year which does feel pretty unlikely. There has been emphasis on the next three years, Mylers and Cartwrights contracts expire in 2027 along with key players such as Asiata and Abdull, and till then the owners won't be taking a penny out of the club. The blueprint they are working towards seems like 2025 Season - Be competitive again, get fans back onside and give us something to build on. 8-9th place will be seen as progress. 2026 Season - Challenging for top 6 will be seen as an expectation rather than ambition. 5-6th place finish would be the target. 2027 Season - Consolidating ourselves as a top 6 club whilst pushing for a top 4 finish. 6th place would be the minimum, 4th place or above would be the aim. Obviously only a plan, we could reach the end goal quicker or of course not at all, but its nice to see after several years of negativity that there is something to look forward to.[/quote:1lex419r] This is my expectation too.

I'd be reasonably happy with 8th place, no hammerings, winning the majority of home games, beating a SL team in the Cup, maybe even winning a game in September (miracles do happen).

[quote="ComeOnYouUll":3ft8ws8g]I'd be reasonably happy with 8th place, no hammerings, winning the majority of home games, beating a SL team in the Cup, maybe even winning a game in September (miracles do happen).[/quote:3ft8ws8g] Realistic until the September wish

[quote="Jake the Peg":xbbg5lco]I think best we can realistically hope for is top of the bottom 4 clubs, however big question marks over leeds and salford for me, either of who could go OK but also tank. The other big unknown is injuries. If everyone has their first choice 17 available every week then I'd say wigan to finish top, with rovers and catalans fighting for 2nd place, wire, saints and leigh 4th to 6th, leeds and salford 7th and 8th with us, cas, hudds and wakey 9th to 12th, however most teams have thin squads so injuries will play a massive part in where you finish. Anyone confident of us finishing 8th or higher is deluding themselves IMO. We have a new coach, plenty of mid 30's players and some with poor injury records. If we finished 8th and were consistent all season I'd say this squad has probably over delivered[/quote:xbbg5lco] Think Wigan will remain the team that will top the league, then places 2 to 4 likely to be fought out between KR, Wire or Catalan. St's not sure on but think it could be another disappointing season for them as feel Wellens could be another Cunningham. Leigh have recruited well and will be up in the mix for a top 6 spot. Not convinced that even with Brad Arthur at the helm Leeds will be that much improved and Salford have to have question marks due to their financial situation and having to reduce their spend on players by a 3rd. Cas for me have question marks with McGuire as a head coach for the first time, it could go well or be a struggle. The bottom 2 for me is likely to be Wakey and Huddersfield and think it could well be Huddersfield that end up bottom due again in part to Robinson being new to the Head Coach role. On to us, there's rightly some question marks over us with all the changes made to the squad but with Cartwright coming in as Coach and inclusion of leadership within the squad think we can challenge for 8th and maybe higher if we get a bit of luck and Leeds and Salford struggle. I do think generally the quality of SL is lower than it has been for a long while and Wigan are the really the only standouts though KR, Wire and Catalans have the potential to be up there but still think Wigan are just too complete in comparison to every other team.

[quote="HU8HFC":3pwaqfb1]It is nice to see some people have confidence in the squad and that a 6th place finish is achievable, but for me we would be banking on a few sides better than us to have a bad year which does feel pretty unlikely. 2025 Season - Be competitive again, get fans back onside and give us something to build on. 8-9th place will be seen as progress. 2026 Season - Challenging for top 6 will be seen as an expectation rather than ambition. 5-6th place finish would be the target. 2027 Season - Consolidating ourselves as a top 6 club whilst pushing for a top 4 finish. 6th place would be the minimum, 4th place or above would be the aim. [/quote:3pwaqfb1] I don't think it is impossible for us to be 6th come September but, as you say, we will require quite a lot to fall our way for it to come to pass. We will need to stay relatively injury free with the team, and individual players, performing to somewhere around their optimum level for the bulk of the season. Even then, we will most likely be relying on a batch of other sides (Leigh, Leeds, Salford probably) to significantly underperform in order to open up that sixth play-off spot. That's a fair amount of coincidence/luck going our way for us to pinch a play-off spot. Think it may be twelve months too early to start thinking along those lines. Seem to recall I put forward a similar argument before the start of last year as to how we could sneak sixth, and look how that turned out Agree with you, think the mid-term plan is to put some solid foundation stones in place over this year, and probably next, before making ourselves play-off contenders again in 2027. To go from eleventh (with just three wins) to a play-off spot in twelve months feels like taking two leaps in one go. As I said, it may happen, but think we're asking for a fair bit to fall our way for it to be. I'm not setting the bar too high for 2025, we really have been burned very badly these past four years. All I am looking for this season is signs that we are once more moving in an upwards direction, even if it is only small steps to begin with.

Hull will probably bring in a couple more players as the season goes on. Players become available after 6-10 games. Hull are in that position Rovers where in for years where players won't come to clubs with low expectations and no matter what money is thrown about only one or two players of class will jump for money alone. Lam is still on Hulls radar according to your main sponsor and he is to decide over the next few months if his future is in SL or NRL. 5-7 years with a fair wind and Hull may challenge the 6 but with the squad assembled for 2025 it would be a tall order.

Wigan Warrington Catalan's Saints Dobbins Leeds Leigh FC Huddersfield Wakefield Cas

[quote="Jake the Peg":2vi6nk6u]I think best we can realistically hope for is top of the bottom 4 clubs, however big question marks over leeds and salford for me, either of who could go OK but also tank. The other big unknown is injuries. If everyone has their first choice 17 available every week then I'd say wigan to finish top, with rovers and catalans fighting for 2nd place, wire, saints and leigh 4th to 6th, leeds and salford 7th and 8th with us, cas, hudds and wakey 9th to 12th, however most teams have thin squads so injuries will play a massive part in where you finish. Anyone confident of us finishing 8th or higher is deluding themselves IMO. We have a new coach, plenty of mid 30's players and some with poor injury records. If we finished 8th and were consistent all season I'd say this squad has probably over delivered[/quote:2vi6nk6u] leeds have problems deep rooted within their upstairs, i dont see them doing anything special this year, salford is all dependent on fire sales

The more stories I hear about what a shambles the club was in last year the more I think, actually, it might not take a miracle to get us competing in 2025 after all. Not that I'm expecting us to be battling with Wigan and Warrington, but I do believe that in elite sport the margins between success and failure are very small, and if things were really as bad as stated then a few relatively easy fixes should make a lot of difference. Wigan Warrington St Helens Hull KR Catalans Leigh Hull FC Leeds Huddersfield Salford Wakefield Castleford A bit optimistic perhaps, but hey, if you can't be a little bit optimistic going into a new season then whats the point.

5th for but let’s see after 9-11 games Like a barometer type esque

C Cup - the draw and when we play ? Please could someone remind me when the draw is and when is our Round played ? Cheers

[quote="Tarquin Fuego":25orb5cy]C Cup - the draw and when we play ? Please could someone remind me when the draw is and when is our Round played ? Cheers[/quote:25orb5cy] Super League clubs enter at Round 3 with games taking place 8th/9th February (the week before the league season starts). All SL clubs will be drawn away at one of the twenty Second Round winners.The draw will be taking place probably on 27th January.

I’m happy to be in the “ deluded “ club Rather than the “ depressive “ club, Immature posters ! dear oh dear. Salford will struggle to get near the top 6 with their playing roster depleted. We have around 7 of the Leigh & Salford players that finished top 6. Catalans saints Leeds all have big question marks. All had poor to average seasons. One thing I agreed with Cooke report is that I expect there will be changes to the squad during the season if we aren’t competitive. New owners won’t settle for 8th Nor will the players we’ve brought in. Said it before the standard of Sl has dropped in recent years. Leigh came up from championship and finish top 6 and win the cup. As crap as we were last season we beat Wigan. I know it’s the same regular posters on here but most fc fans I’ve spoke too agree that we will go well next season. I’m sure 7500 +fans agree.

We have these threads every year. Where's our resident coffee expert? I'm sure she can dig up a few from the last 2 or 3 years where people have been wildly optimistic with no basis for it and we've been utter rubbish

I work on the theory that if I'm optimistic before every season I'm bound to be right one day . Plus I'm a FC supporter and it's in my DNA to think we will do well

[quote="Jake the Peg":cc57rf40]We have these threads every year. Where's our resident coffee expert? I'm sure she can dig up a few from the last 2 or 3 years where people have been wildly optimistic with no basis for it and we've been utter rubbish[/quote:cc57rf40] I think the last few seasons have taught us all to be cautious or at least it should of, do feel alot more confident this year than last, as feel our facilities, off field staff and playing staff are streets ahead of last season. I said last year, we could do ok if the gambles pay off, unfortunately not one of them did and it was a diaster. We still have gambles amd need some of those to pay off, but no where near the level of 2024. I do wonder if Smith gets another chance to coach, I think it would be a huge risk.

Don’t think battling for 6th is particularly wildly optimistic,maybe hopeful,time will tell.We could all see what was happening the last 2 or 3 years,but things have changed?

[quote="Jake the Peg":34zzi132]We have these threads every year. Where's our resident coffee expert? I'm sure she can dig up a few from the last 2 or 3 years where people have been wildly optimistic with no basis for it and we've been utter rubbish[/quote:34zzi132] Stop living in the past peg. We’ve not had wealthy club owners before We could search for a positive post from you but it would be like looking for kr’s trophy cabinet