Stick to "kick & clap" mate, with predictions like that.

I reckon that Wigan, Saints, Leeds, Wire, and Huddersfield will be finishing in the top 5 although it's anyone' guess as to what order they will finish - I've had a bash at putting them in order. I then think that Catalan are in a league by themselves for claiming the 6th placed spot before a mini league consisting of the two Hull teams and Salford. I'm going with Salford to fill the 9th spot purely because I think that they may still be gelling for the first few months of the season.
I also have gone for London to fill the bottom spot, although it's still remains to be seen if they will get more new players before the season starts. Again I believe there will be a 4 way battle for the remaining relegation spot between Bradford, Cas, Wakey, and Widnes where I have gone for Widnes to occupy the final spot as Wakey always seem to pull together when people write them off. Of course I'm relying on teams not having to sell anymore players due to debts, and top teams playing their full strength teams in their away games at Widnes this season (seems certain teams put a reduced strength team out due to the fear of the artificial turf).

As always I'll be nowhere near with my prediction



1 - Wigan Warriors
2 - St Helens
3 - Leeds Rhino's
4 - Warrington Wolves
5 - Huddersfield Giants
6 - Catalan Dragons
7 - Hull Kr
8 - Hull FC
9 - Salford Red Devils
10 - Bradford Bulls
11 - Castleford Tigers
12 - Wakefield Wildcats
......................................
13 - Widnes Vikings
14 - London Broncos

London only lost 12-16 at Catalans yesterday and apparently looked a reasonable side, which might make the bottom of the table less obvious than it appeared earlier.

I'd absolutely love it if London avoided the drop. The explosion on here would be awesome


What side did Cats put out against them though? Preseason friendlies are a terrible indicator of where a team is at

Nobody really has any idea about how things will pan out, I've not seen a single one of the SL teams play yet in pre season but I'll have a guess based on business in the off season.

Wigan - Lost Tomkins but he was absent a chunk of last season too, Green and Smith have had a season to gel
Saints - Hit their straps in summer, one to watch
Huddersfield - Unless Brough misses for significant parts. The one man most important to any team
Leeds - Solid
Wire - Loss of Briers very big, will anyone step up?
Catalans - Done pretty good business and a good crop of young players
Hull KR - We've recruited well in what was a weak pack, much depends on how Keating fills Dobson's boots
Salford - Really don't have a clue where they will come, too many ifs and buts so 8th will do
Hull FC - Decent on paper but lack depth of quality
Widnes - Some very good performances at the back end of last year, think they will surprise a few
Cas - Seymour should bring a more structured style, obviously not in the same league as Rangi but will go okay I think
Bradford - Going to make hard work of 2014 IMO
Wakey - Struggle after being stripped of a lot of quality over winter
London - Hope not but see some hidings coming this season, last by a distance

Not saying your predictions are wrong because 6-9 are fairly well matched and Hull could well end up 9th (I don't think we will but it's possible). However I can't agree with the lack of depth comment. If anything our first 17 is weaker than last year, but we have a good deep squad. Our youth players in particular are the best we have had for a long time.

[uTop 2[/u

1/2. [iSaints [/i- Pack now looks strongest in league, and with a kicking general at half-back, that should compensate for any weaknesses in 3/4.

1/2. [iWarrington[/i - still a very strong side with talent all over the park

[uThen...[/u

3/4/5. [iLeeds[/i - steady as she goes, but will the extra year's experience for the young lads compensate for the extra year's mileage for the veterans ?

3/4/5. [iWigan[/i - A Tomkins-less Wigan will be a much less threatening proposition.

3/4/5.[i Huddersfield [/i- No worse than last year, but can they repeat that consistent form two years running ?

[uThen...[/u

6/7 [iCatalans[/i - always a threat at home, less of a threat away

6/7 [iHull[/i - still the sleeping giant

[uThen...[/u

8/9/10/11 [iSalford[/i - I would be amazed if they made the top 8, despite the hype. Not at all impressed by the squad, with a lot of last-paycheque type players. Would not surprise me at all to see them hovering in the bottom 3

8/9/10/11 [iHull KR [/i- probably 8th, but as usual will be inconsistent, with the ability to knock over Saints, but then losing to Cas.

8/9/10/11 [iCastleford[/i - speaking of Cas, they'll do what they do, which is basically be better than the very worst, but ultimately provide a fairly easy 2 points for all the sides in the top half of the table

8/9/10/11 [iBradford[/i - The dark horse of the bottom half. I have no real feel for how they'll go. Could be ok, could be terrible. Certainly in this lower group of clubs scrapping it out for the 8th place.

[uBottom...[/u

12/13/14 [iWakey[/i - should have enough to stay ahead of the bottom 2, but will spend much of the season looking over their shoulder at relegation

12/13/14 [iWidnes[/i - Must be gutted that 2 clubs will go down, but I think this is the year Widnes's SL sojourn will come to an end

12/13/14 [iLondon[/i - Absolute nailed on dead-set certainties to finish bottom. I'd love this to not be the case. I'd love their team of not-very-good-locals and never-made-it-to-NRL-antipodeans to upset enough apple carts to stay up, but with the utter chaos at the club, I think they've been given just enough sticking plaster to limp through this season before oblivion.

I think Saints fans are going over the top with this best pack in the league comments? I just don't see how it is when it's basically the same team as last year add Amor Masoe and lagfranchi none of those are real world class forwards. But I suppose opinions vary?

Going to be a very interesting league. Teams at the bottom are going to be fighting for their lives. I think Londons biggest problem isn't their lack of quality but they have a lot of loan players. It's very hard to get the "backs to the wall mentality" when players know they are going back to their parent club. But I have this sneaky feeling they may stick two fingers up at everyone and survive lol

1. Saints
2. Wire
3. Leeds
4. Wigan
5. Giants
6. Salford
7. Catalans
8. Rovers
9. Hull (they are a team to watch this year. They could finish as high as 6th, but could get dragged into the relegation fight. The 3 most important people in a team (coach and the two half backs) are all rookies.
10. Bradford
11. Cas
12. Widnes (they need to be more consistent. They can't have their handful if "embarrassments" like last two seasons as they might not be able to make up for it against the smaller teams who are fighting for their lives"
13. Wakefield
14. London

Cc winners - Giants
GF -Saints V Wire - Wire win

Last year we beat 4 of the top 8 and drew with Catalan while failing to beat London, losing 2 games against Wakey and also losing to Salford.... Apart from that very accurate.

Think saints look stronger than last year, but will still be a little off the pace from Leeds Wigan and wire, may leap frog huddersfield, but I can also quite easily see them bombing and replacing Brown halfway through season. Think brown us a contender for first sacking of 2014 if they mis fire.

Wigan without Tomkins, Richards and Mossop, surely they can be written off as not even top 4

As everyone did last year write Wigan off at your peril.

Writing hem off top 4 is ludicrous! Yes they have lost Tomkins but ate still a very good team. Don't forget Tomkins missed a large part of last year. Bowen could be an excellent signing and if Bateman stays injury free will be a star. Think Harrison Hanson will be a big miss for them and is Salfords best signing after Chase.

It's looking increasingly likely that Horne and Rankin will be first choice halves this year.

Oh go on write us off for top 4, it worked last year

Are you a schizophrenic?

Roby is one of the very few genuinely world class players left in the league ...

I think first and foremost, watching saints week in week out, the most exciting thing is we've signed players who will fill the rolls we were obviously missing. You may say Amor isn't a world class prop, but he precisely the type of grafter we've needed (it was lms last year, but that role doesn't suit his game).

It also helps we generally showed up well in the World Cup - if Masoe can replicate his performance against New Zealand even once this season the fans will love him. Soliola also showed up really well, and seems a bit of the forgotten man of st.helens with opposition (and saints fans at times) underestimating what he's capable of.

Coupled with so great promising talent pushing through (meaning any poor performances like lms at the start of last year) doesn't need to be tolerated.

We might be missing a peacock who can stand above all others in the pack, but as a unit were as strong as they come. Whose pack would you class as better?

If Salford mis-fire at the start of the season, it wouldn't suprise me to see Nobby in the queue at his local jobcentre before the late Spring Bank Holiday - the good Doctor doesn't strike me as being a patient man!

Catalans team: Escaré, Vaccari, Cardace, Ahlalou, Oldfield, Barthau, Dureau, Bousquet, J. Guasch, Springer, Baile, Garcia, Baitieri
Substitutes : Simon, Margalet, Robin, Miloudi, Maria, Scimone

11 of the 19 don't have a squad number for the coming season.

Missing players: Webb, Pryce, Bosc, Mounis, Elima, Taia, Anderson, Fakir, Millard, Pala, Henderson, Pomeroy, Lima, Pelissier, Whitehead, Paea, Duport

Did you watch the world cup? I would take Masoe at HKR any day of the week. The man is a wrecking ball!!!

Did you watch the world cup? I would take Masoe at HKR any day of the week. The man is a wrecking ball!!!

Wow I know we have some harsh critics out there but bottom 3, not sure where that one comes from but if we do I'll quite happily let you take a dump in my shoes.

Best go and tell the doctor his investment so far equates to a basement battle. WTF are you on ?

.

I'd like to think that if Wakefield can finally get their four overseas players in Anderson, Godinet, Ryan and hopefully Siejka before the start of Super League (Visas!

) and quickly develop a good starting 17 then we'll not be in the bottom 2 by the end.

If Salford stay clear of injuries they'll definitely be in the top 8 but hopefully they will have a shock loss to Wakey at the start!