Are you kidding? Lurking is such fun, like that clown with the windowsill painting.

If Radford can sort our obvious deficiencies..discipline, going to pot after a few personnel changes plus the thing he was trying to make a point over in Portugal(winning when under the cosh) then we could make top 6. We have some quality players but Radford has to ensure he doesn't fall into the same mistakes of last year.
If players don't perform or can't follow/execute a game plan or their targets within a game have to be told in no uncertain terms and he(Radford) figure out why and what needs to be done to ensure things constantly improve. his head scratching of last season and not having a clue what to do as he so often said won't cut it.
Get a great start in what is a really tough start and that could settle us and give us confidence for us to show what we can do..start badly and we will be behind the 8 ball and chasing tight games which forces errors due to panic( and it happens all the time).

Wigan
Saints
Catalans
Warrington
Leeds
Salford
Rovers
Hull
Hudds
Cas
Widnes
Wakey

Big call for Huddersfield there. Wouldn't disagree with the shape of it though.

Wigan
Catalan
Saints
Warrington
Leeds
Salford
Hull
Hudds
Rovers
Widnes
Cas
Wakey

Aside from Wigan, Saints, Cats & Warrington I think the rest (aside from Wakey) are a omplete toss up as to where they place.
We do have a good squad but not great..yet. I've said we need another prop in lieu of a back & I think that could be one of our sticking points unless the younger props really start to show their mettle. Mini is going to be pivotal for us, more so than Westerman and Ellis I feel & Syned I hope can replicate his early season form from last year. I'm still not convinced by Pryce & I'd rather have JA in there but let's see.
The reality is that we could be anywhere from 5th to 11th, I just hope to god it's closer to 5th.

As for Hudds, I just have a gut feeling about them, I predicted last season they would go off the boil after their LL trophy and they did, they scraped third and scraped a fair few wins along the way and when it came down to it they got absolutely mullered by Wigan and lost to what was a bang average Cats side (on the day) at home. I just feel that they'll fall further away (hopefully) below us. I think Salford are much improved as are Rovers...but it's all conjecture.
What I do know is that we have a really really tough first 6 fixtures, that could make us or break us, let's not kid ourselves, we could easily lose all 6..not only would the fans be on the back of the team & the coach, the players would be under increasing pressure every game from there on in..and under pressure we have being shown to crack, give cheap penalties, switch off and revert to pants/panic rugby. That is why I was passionate about the failings to address the psychological aspect of the players, it's so massively important, why watching a video in Portugal just isn't enough, you can have all the skills in the world but if players heads drop & game plans go out the window & panic sets in your furked
Despite what people might think of me I want us to succeed, I really really do, if Radford gets us winning & back to the top 6 (because less than that is a failure in my eyes) I'll be the first to say yeah I got it wrong (from a coaching POV) I hate watching us implode and seeing heads go down & decent players go to shat. I hate seeing issues that crop up time & again that bite us when there are solutions to try & straighten them but don't get addressed & as I said Radford's head scratching last year was extremely worrying.

We can make top 6, but will we? My table prediction says no on the balance of probabilities & guesswork, that's all it can ever be right now.

Great post. If we lost the first 6 I wonder whether Pearson would act. He's set so much store by Radford and the long game. Key for everyone we get off to a good start.

Or not to panic and get behind them if we get off to a less than brilliant start?

Think I jury's will dictate where some teams finish,which teams have the best and biggest squads.

This is going to be one of the hardest to pick of all. There don't appear to be any runaway brilliant sides and with London gone no horrendously bad ones either. There won't be many games at all where a team performing below par will get a win and unpredictable factors like injuries to key players are going to have a huge influence. There will be one team who will surprise like Cas did last year (hopefully us) and one which will disintegrate (hopefully the dobbins). Leeds will be interesting to watch, there's enough talent there to beat anybody but they are aging rapidly and can they survive the weekly grind. Salford are a time bomb, a side with grade A tools like Hock, Chase and Patterson in it could implode most spectacularly. The only sides I can see not making the 8 are Wakefield who just don't appear to have enough depth to get through the whole season, though I would still expect some impressive one off performances from and Widnes, who were very lucky to get there last year, haven't improved much and their plastic abomination of a pitch is losing its fear factor for visitors.

'plastic' turf pitches are the way forward though, certainly in rugby IMO

I agree with you there. Too many ageing players for me.

Played on the rugby specific 3G at York St John a few weeks ago and it wasn't that bad, certainly allowed faster rugby even in the rain. The scrapes weren't anywhere near as bad as what you get off bone dry thin grass pitches.

The bookies say:
Wigan
Saints
Wire
Leeds
Cats
Hudds
Salford
Hull
Cas
KR
Widnes
Wakey

Leeds 4th seems a stretch but all the bookies seem to agree that they are a street better than Catalan.

First 6 games are crucial. Any points in the first 4 games should be a bonus compared to last year's same fixtures. 4 points from 8 would be a great start seeing we have Huddersfield, Warrington, Salford and wigan