Quote: Mild Rover "I haven't allowed myself to think about 'what if we do get up?' and it is a pleasure to be able to do it now. When you say the qualifiers will be tougher next year, do you mean because of the likely involvement of Toronto, or is there another reason too?
They're a weird little mini-league, the middle 8s. It's kind of mad that Leeds and Warrington followed up really strong seasons by playing in them, and that we've spent a season in the championship having won 16 of 19 games so far across 3 years.
SL seems to have evened up these last couple of seasons. Cas, Hull and to a lesser extent Wakey have put some big cracks in the glass ceiling. I'd like to think we're aiming higher than scraping 8th next season. Aiming ain't achieving, but we seem better organised with Sheens in charge than we have been before. On the other hand, the cap going up (rightly IMO), should favour the wealthier clubs.'"
Yes Toronto, also think Toulouse will be stronger and expect London to kick on ( they have unlucky this year).
The top 4 will probably be
Toronto (who will spend the full cap)
Toulouse
London
Leigh/Widnes/Catalans
Add in 4 SL teams it won't be fun to be in.
I think your recruitment needs to be outstanding to even make 8th, McGuire is a good start, but not much quality available particularly with very few quota spots.
At least you have a couple of extra weeks to sort your recruitment out.