I really wonder whether the people who are commenting on Seijkas goalkicking were actually at either of the two games. I was. At Castleford, I thought he did pretty well considering he was kicking in extremely windy conditions, at Headingley, the first two tries were pretty close to the touchline if I recall. He may or may not prove to be up there with Gale in terms of kicking, but at least give him a chance one way or the other.

Interpreting that. I was not knocking Seijka. I know that he commands a much coveted, responsible role, if he not working on all cylinders, well we know what can happen!! I hope he puts to bed all the criticism he has been a focus of.

It was a close call in cas match between sjelka and mullaney for bulls motm IMO. Didn't see Leeds game so can't comment on that one. Cas game he was kicking in very windy conditions so wouldn't read too much into misses. Was surprised that no one else was given a try kicking in friendlies. Maybe suggests sjelka is looking best option by a decent margin in training.

I think most of the negative stuff has come from Wakey fans and stems from his time there. It's fair to say he didn't have the best of times at Belle Vue, but there were reasons , mainly injuries and by his own admission he was never 100% fit when there.

To be honest, I've no idea how he dropped form being the NRL 'wunderkind', to signing for us, a championship club, here in the UK. Maybe that is injury related too, I dunno.

With the kicking, I can only assume he's been best in practice. He missed a couple at Cas, in the wind and quite well out but seemed to be quite near. Again at Headingley he missed two from well out, though I couldn't see how close he was from the west terrace - maybe he was close again?

If I recall correctly most if not all of the conversions he missed were tough ones from the touch line, my observation was that he lacked a bit of power with the boot. Perhaps we just got used to seeing Foster wellying them over from far out. It is reassuring to know you have a player who can convert from far out, so I hope all our options are putting in the practice ready for the new season.

It will be pretty important to put the difficult ones over in the tight games, particularly at the end of the year, though I guess there will be plenty from a bit nearer in the earlier stuff.

Wildly of thread, the club and fans have been missing competiveness going to matches, at least now we can go watch matches that are that. I am sure it has not gone unnoticed even with other clubs in superleague last season that had some one sided heavy scores were disappointing

I know things happen, but I want to the team to play football and not get dragged into brawls. That seems commonplace just because its the Championship.

Well I'm definitely looking forward to this season more than I have done for a very long time. I'm still unsure of how this new structure will pan out. I worry that the lower end Championship clubs might struggle to compete with full time teams. But then I also wonder whether realistically a championship team can compete with SL clubs in a 7 game tournament when they're at such a huge financial disadvantage. If Bradford/Leigh/London or whoever lose 2/3 key players at the wrong time of the year then they can probably forget about promotion despite what they might have done in the season leading up to the split. But take T Smith and one or two others out of Wakefield and they'd probably be very vulnerable.

I think that's the one positive we may have.

We have a big squad and with some of the 'easier'' fixtures we will be able to 'rest' players [sorry, rotate the squad whilst the SL teams at the bottom will presumably feel they have to put in players who are not 100% in a desperate attempt to keep out of the bottom four.

Sadly, I don't think that will be quite enough but we have to take what we can get, I guess.

Don`t recall any player getting sent off in the first minutes of the Championship GF. So can you back up the `brawls being commonplace` in the Championship?

Enigmatically speaking ?

yes as you say the probability is low but nonetheless there. Maybe it should have been the bottom two of SL and the top two of the Championship and home and away to increase the cup game effect, but there are other factors in the super 8s than providing an arena for promotion upsets. Perhps someone can tell me what they are.

Its a case of trying to deal with the financial and player disparity, do you think? It is clear as has been discussed that there are gulfs in different funding. Even Jimmy has said as much.

I guess its an incentive for all teams to bring there best games each week but I cant help thinking that the top four Championship clubs will be in the end London, Bradford, Leigh and Fev. So its a straight 4 playoff from the start.

Reducing the Big Prize to just 4 SL clubs is Disappointing, As a neutral is was ok as it was and engaged the rugby league calendar with the continuation of super league contests.

Also will the TV ratings be that great for this super 8s we will be in.

Don't see any reason that they'll be any worse than a bottom four SL clash. Many in non regular RL areas won't have a clue what "Super League Qualifying 8s" are anyway..

I think the idea is to confuse people with the naming in the hope they tune in assuming it's Super 8 Rugby

The Leigh fans clearly don't think we are up to much, they have a thread going called 'undefeated' that's worth a look

not really worth a look, as the only post of interest is that we are at 16-1 to go undefeated whereas they are 20-1, which they fail to debate. noteworthy is that both are odds against not for, which tells you all you need to know, actually no it doesnt, the odds on topping the 12's tell a tale too.

Maybe they will maybe they won't. It would be good to finish top as the extra price money is worth the effort and big help as we know. But it's about how you perform in the play offs (assuming Leigh qualify for them) that counts. As every teenage mother of Wigan and Leigh will tell you. Pulling out the big plays is a matter of timing.

" Undefeated" saw the thread, I was suitably amused. Yes sport is about timing, certainly coming to the latter end.

Going unbeaten in the meaningless phase 1? So what.

Phase 1 is where 3 teams with big boots have to stomp on puppies for lots of rounds. Some of the puppies are a bit bigger than others and might snap a bit, but they are all puppies.

Phase 2 is where the 3 teams with big boots plus one puppy get stamped on by teams wearing absolutely huge boots.

Shouldn't you have sent this in to Boots n All?

He probably just meant if Leigh are involved in a game.

I've never thought of Leigh as arrogant and quite fancy going this year.

Does anyone know where it is?

Isn't it a small town in Wigan?

To be fair, it's a post about the odds the bookies give on going undefeated, and most replies, point out that they are miserly. We didn't even go undefeated last year, and it's a far stronger league this year.

Can't claim to know too much about the Bradford team this year, but they are favourites to win the league this year according to bookies, and they're not often wrong!

The optimism for Leigh fans is down to the fact that we have best squad we've had for a long long time. Looking forward to seeing how we stand up against Bradford and London. Should be a great season!