I think ours has improved, especially in the forwards, plus a bit more depth to the squad but there again I am going to say that, you know this.

Hudds have not gone backwards, also think Leeds are just as strong.

We have some potential from younger players improving and others reviving previous form , we have a couple of steady characters and a couple who need to prove last year's excellent form was no one season wonder but we lack nailed on class. For us to improve on last year as a team we need two or three or more players to really live up to their potential and for the forwards in particular and players in general to have energy and the right attitude every week , all game , including 3 minutes before half time , the first 10 at an "easy" away trip etc etc.

Debatable on your squad. On one hand you've brought in some aggressive, experienced players who will tighten your defence and give you some go forward. On the other, you've signed a bunch of NRL cast offs looking for a final pay day. Remains to be seen how it pans out but I doubt keating will adequately replace dobson and I'd rather have paea than either poore or weyman

His leadership skills need to improve, he was a poor leader on the pitch for us when the chips were down, will be interesting to see how things go.

Paea for me was our player of the season last year, outstanding and I agree it will take a massive effort from Weyman and Poore to be as good as he was, I can't see it. But from what I saw last year he was possibly the best prop in comp, I didn't see any player dominate him once! A few question marks over his defence at times though, not many albeit.

I have said previous my worries are over Weyman and possibly Costigan. I'm still surprised Catalan allowed us to take Larroyer!

I think Keating will go really well, no nonsense, tough as nails, good support player. I'm pretty confident he will settle in very nicely.

Rovers won't do much better than last year for two reasons.

Awful defence from their backs, maybe the worst in the league,

No organiser or kicker in the team, neither burns or Keating are that player. Rovers fans are under estimating the loss of Dobson.

I would also worry about conditioning, looking at the state of Keating and Costigan.

I think most realise we'll miss Dobbo but it will make us less predictable. I think we will be tougher defensively this year.

Paea was a good signing for you my only quibble with him is lack of minutes on the pitch and his defence struggles once asked to play more, coupled with Feka this could be an issue, I think you'll miss Lynch more than you think.

Think Keating mentioned in an interview recently stating he is in good shape and claims he's wanting to kick well. I saw the pics from a while back of him looking a touch out of shape but sounds like he has been putting the effort in. Not to sure he has had issues with been fit for games previously.
Agree we could struggle with our kicking, it's something I worry about. The lad has had plenty of time to practice the art. No doubt whatsoever we will miss Dobson in attack but as been mentioned, fingers crossed we will be less predictive, might not be a positive.

We have replaced possibly our worst defender in the team in Dobson with a cracking defender in Keating, so there is one issue addressed in defence. Plus hopefully with the added experience in the team our defence might stiffen up.

Costigan has never had a six pack and fantastic pecs, well not from what I remember. Think Roopy brought it up on our forum before regarding his physical shape. Probably take him a little longer to hit full match fitness after a playing his part in a good Newcastle team last year and then going onto the World Cup. With more depth and cover hopefully he won't need to be rushed and doing more than he can deal with early on in the season.

I thought that about lynch, but I fully expect Chris green to step into that role, think he will really kick on this year and he really looked the part in preseason so far.

As I've said I don't see much improvement in your squad.

In last seasons derby games, 4 players from the rovers team worried me, Eden, Dobson, Paea and Patterson, 3 of them have left and it's debatable if you have replaced them with better or worst players.

Like hull you need a bit if luck and hope some gambles pay off if you want a better season.

I think that's a very fair point, I just don't think our risks are as high as the ones at FC.

Let's be honest, neither team will trouble the top 4 and will be nowhere to be seen come grand final time

Its a top 5 these days for me, Hudds have broke in and don't look to be going anywhere soon.

yeah i would agree with that. this leaves how many clubs fighting for 3 playoff spaces? catalan, hull, rovers, salford, bradford. can't see wakey, london, cas or widnes figuring in the playoff race - their strength in depth isn't good enough to cover injuries. i can see hull and rovers battling out out for 8th

we'll get a few good results but a few poor ones as well, I can see us getting tonked a couple of times. Compared to last season we will be worse finishing 7th at best and we won't reach semis in the CC unless we get a VERY favourable draw.

IMO Radford is most definitely not the man to take us forward, it's Agar all over again except with a little more bite and a far better setting within the club (Investment et al). I don't like his coaching style, I don't think he has the type of rugby brain to enable us to compete where it counts & I don't think he's capable of bringing us anywhere near where we wan't to be as a club performance wise.
And lastly employing an ex player whom undermined/didn't support the last coach is just bad business.