I know that it's the most over asked question in the whole of Rugby League, but here I go.
We had a poor start, however with the wins against Bradford and Wakefield and a more than convincing performance away to Wigan, I think we will finish 8th.
Another fine reason to be optimistic, is that we are suffering quite a few short term injuries/suspensions, with Eden and David Hodgson injured. Eden will be back soon, Hodgson will be back in May, suspended Poore will come back for the derby.

Poore will be available for the derby.

Oh right, thanks. I've edited it now. Even better if he's back for the derby then

We have so far managed 2 home wins against 2 of the 3 worst teams in the comp. I predicted there would be a total over-reaction if we did and here it comes.

Maybe we will, but if that's the height of your ambition then maybe you could start a petition to get Sandercock a new contract.

I expect our board will be a tad more ambitious than 8th every year, which will require a coach upgrade.

Even if they have higher ambitions long term, I wouldn't risk destabilising things until the season is over, it's not a season for risk, unspectacular but safe would be a better option.

Obviously we can, but none of the supposed second tier teams (rovers, hull, Salford and Catalans) have started particularly brilliantly.
Cas and Widnes have outstripped expectations. If just one of them does okay from here on in and none of the 'big 5' collapse utterly, it won't be easy. It'll be interesting to how we go against teams we thought would be our main competitors for positions 6-8.

Can we finish 8th to achieve what exactly?

Hopefully a win on Sunday and a reasonable draw will see all our eggs in the Wembley basket anyway.

There should really be no rewarding (if that's the word) of finishing 7th and 8th in a 14 team comp, if we do have a cup run we might well be better off not been 8th this year and getting ready for a very important start to the season next year. A start like this year and it will be Sheffield here we come.

@SirStan, Wakefield haven't done that badly in terms of scoring tries, they put 50 past Catalans and had only just lost to the Saints before coming to our ground. Our defence which had previously been quite shaky, limited them to a lucky try which is an encouraging sign.
How is finishing in the Top 8 the height of my ambition? I knew that if I posted anything that you'd pick loads of holes out of it, yet if I said that we are going to finish in the Top 4 or win the Challenge Cup or whatever you'd have called me deluded. If I said could we avoid relegation you'd have called me under ambitious. So what am I meant to do?

Through Easter and May we have a lot of games against our near rivals, so we should get a better idea where we're really at during that period.
Easter will be tough, because we have 2 challenging games while Hull and Catalans other game is London.

Love to see it I know it is in the past but 1979/1980 we were bloody crap, but went to Wembley and won so you never know

After this season making the top 8 will be more important than ever - failure to do so puts you in the middle 8 mini league and a battle for Super League survival.

Probably in time those making the top 8 will be viewed as the only 100% bona fide Super League clubs.

So I don't think we should turn up our noses too much at 'only' making the top 8. Personally I take a little bit of satisfaction that we have achieved this 5 years out of 7 it gives us a little bit of status beyond the annual strugglers. Though I accept it's not going to bring fans flocking in and we do need to have loftier ambitions.

I think we probably will get there again but I wouldn't stake my mortgage on it. We are currently 10th and there are no more than 3 or 4 teams we could realistically have a chance of overtaking.

I think things do look much more encouraging now than 2 or 3 weeks back. Keating has proved that he does have plenty to offer and the forwards have shown a bit of the menace we were hoping for. We will need to see how they get on in the forthcoming games against Warrington, Hull & Catalans we will know better after that.

There are at least 11 decent teams this year so it's difficult but I do think that our low point for the season is behind us.

I'm not getting carried away Stan but after Sunday it has made me take notice of the nrl more just to see who are the probable teams we will be playing in the wcc next season

It will all get very interesting...