Im hoping for good things from Bevan French. Lightning pace and excellent footwork. He could really thrive at 6

Or he could be a complete flop

Yeah, but that's pretty much par for the course for any player coming through Bradford's junior ranks - other teams are the ones who benefits due to the poor management of the club.

Matty Smith.
Kyle Eastmond.
Lee Briers.
Just off the top of my head.

Lewis Dodd from St Helens.

Easily the most highly rated English product for years. A host of NRL clubs are already trying to sign him after his unprecedented display in Saints recent tour of Australia.

Evidence?

As ever there is none, he’s confused opinion with fact.

At Fev I'd suggest the two who might have a higher profile at the end of the season than they have now are James Harrison, who came on in leaps and bounds as last season went on, is still only 23, and was effective either in the middle or at edge back row, and Alec Susino, who was consistently one of Barrow's best players last season, can play huge minutes and probably hasn't yet attracted the attention he deserves.

Richardson with Trueman could turn out to be a great partnership for us. Or could be a massive bust.

Looking forward to seeing the signing of Tyla Hepi too. He's getting big raps in pre season by all accounts.

As a Salford fan (and as last year proved) we're really a team unit and we've had a lot of unsung heroes over the past couple of seasons.

As mentioned by another poster I expect Seb I (I'm not even gonna try and spell his name

) to have a big year. A 2017 Dream Teamer at Hudds, our conditioning staff will have him firing and ready to go and I'm hoping for big things.

Pauli Pauli was also a massive impact player when we had him on loan last year and again I reckon he'll be in peak shape to terrorise a few defensive lines this year.

I think Lolohea could have an absolute stormer for us as well. Showed plenty of glimpses last season and with his recent International displays and alongside a fit Kevin Brown we could have one of SL best HB pairings.

Harry Smith and Kai Pearce Paul from Wigan

You conveniently forget to mention that you have lost your Man of Steel Jackson Hastings, who made your team so successful last year. You cannot possibly hope to recover from his loss with the The Long Neck in his place. I predict that Salford will not make the playoffs, especially with a James Maloney improved Catalans team, and Sonny Bill Williams combining with Richard Leutele at Toronto.

To actually answer the question, big year for Tom Johnstone, to recover a second time and find your form again is a massive ask, if he does we (club and country) get back one of the worlds best wingers. Ryan Hampshire needs to put up or shut up now as to whether he is or isn't an HB or become a utility player which so far is all he's been.

As for youngsters, Conner Bailey is the one with the credentials with full academy international honours, probably a 6 maybe a 13. The other is Titus Gwaze who I didn't rate but was in truth the only Trinity player to truly shine on boxing day.

I'm with you on Lolohea, really stepped up late in the season and with Tonga. I also think he'll benefit from having more responsibility now Hastings isn't there running every play. Only issue is he has come back quite late and a slow start might knock his confidence - hopefully not.

I think Evalds will kick on again. His defensive positioning (his biggest weakness) got much better in the playoffs and he's already improved his playmaking which was a previous weakness. The only issue is that if he has another stormer we won't be able to afford to keep him!

Also think Lannon will have a good year after a disrupted 2019. He's got the pace, footwork and defence to make it as a good quality back rower. Needs some consistency but think he will deliver.

Yeah I hope for a good year from Johnstone too. Very exciting player. As you said it's very hard to come back from two knee reconstructions so hopefully it won't have affected his speed (or confidence)

One positive in his recovery is the timing of his injuries in that he gets all (or at least a decent chunk) of pre-season under his belt. He's not playing catch-up throughout the year. I remember James Donaldson at 18 was flying and did his 1st ACL in half way through the season. Didn't come back until half way through the next year and was in and out of the team. Then he did his ACL again the next year and again the following season was just playing catch-up. Was 4 years before we knew it without getting any kind of consistent run. Hopefully Johnstone gets a clear run this year.

I'm not as anti Pauli Pauli as most Trinity fans but I'll tell you this, he is a player who will simply never be in 'peak shape'. Nothing to do with Trinity or Salford or his NRL clubs, he simply doesn't have the personal discipline to get or stay fit. He smokes, he eats way to much junk and he doesn't train hard enough especially in the close season and you won't change that.

He may well offer you some impact off the bench and he can even be a match-winner every now and then but overall he's a luxury player. As for terrorising opposition defensive lines, well that never happened in two years at Trinity or anywhere else for that matter - yes due to his massive bulk he is hard to stop near the line but in open play, he had little impact on anyone's defensive line. I advise you subscribe to Trinity TV and watch him play, it's beyond obvious that he's not frightening anyone, whilst his defence is utterly woeful at times and I mean schoolboy stuff.

You're yet to see the real PP, the one who ducks out of tackles and runs like an old man and concedes penalties at a rate of Knotts because on that particular day he's either hung over or simply can't be bothered or his limitations as a player are cruelly exposed.

When you're that big and have that much physical potential there is only one reason you end up in SL, no ticker.

All that said he should have a blinder against Trinity the club that told him he wasn't good enough - if he doesn't then that confirms it all.

Lolohea, on the other hand, is a top-notch player who didn't fit in with Agar but plenty don't, he's shown his full potential at Salford and is a great signing IMHO.

I have a few Wakefield fan friends and they were just as frustrated with him. I've also seen how bad/lazy his defence can be. That being said, he did fit in very well when he was here last season, is coming into a very workmanlike pack that can cover his defensive deficiencies and has so far looked liked he means business fitness wise (he started pre-season before anyone else). We shall see but I'm cautiously optimistic.

He will probably go well for the first half of the season and overall when you consider the lack of big men in the British game compared to the NRL he's worth a punt. Also, he may just fit in better at Salford, some players only work at certain clubs. That said I stand by my assertion that he will never peak as a player for the reasons I gave. Maybe just maybe he could overcome lack of fitness etc but he'll never be a player, in that there are simply too many basic flaws in his game to ever overcome that. You have far better players than PP IMHO.

However, as a battering ram especially when close to the line he can be a real asset, best of luck with him and you never know we have all been wrong about players at our clubs who leave to prove us wrong.

As for starting the pre-season before anyone else I'm not surprised, he needed too

Agree but to add to that, Tom and Bill's partnership along with Ashurst who were all struck down for long period last season, so if they can establish themselves again it will put Trinity in good stead. Fifita is also coming back after a foot operation and until he got injured he was unplayable at times, so he's another that's returning from a major operation and is looking in great shape as well. I'm also looking forward to see what Tanginoa goes like after a full pre season under him. The bloke was a beast when he fell off the plane from down under and was excellent in the 13 or so games he played last season for us.

Mine are:

Harry Newman.
Jack Walker.
Alex Mellor.

Agree on Lannon. He's got the tools to be a really decent 2R and just needs a consistent run of games.

This is by far our most balanced squad in a long long time. Hastings is irreplaceable and we'll miss Jones' blockbusting runs but I'm quietly confident we can grab a mid-table finish and not be worrying about the annual relegation dogfight.

Having seen Lewis play from being around ten years old I can only agree. He's going to be a superstar , and really shone on Saints recent Academy tour to NSW. He scored a fantastic solo try against South Sydney that rounded off a fine individual performance

You certainly did last season. If I recall most people thought the only reason Salford would survive last season was because London were worse. The latter was true but only just!

SL is getting harder to predict, yet now according the the elitist on here it’s down to a lack of quality rather than an improvement across the game. You can’t win with RL fans who remain small minded, parochial and snobbish.

This season I can see any of the 12 as bolsters even HKR who’ve been widely written off, maybe this years Salford.

As for Salford I don’t think you’ll follow up on last year, Hastings is to bigger loss. However if you stay more or less too 8 then you’ve done well and can carry on building. But again who knows it’s that open which IMO is great.

Still no news from Catalans Dragons about a centre replacement for Brayden Williame. So Gavin Marguerite could get his chance in the centres for Catalans, at least at the beginning of the season. If so it could be very interesting.

He was voted man of the match in every game by the opposition.

I think Castleford have a pretty safe bet in Danny Richardson. He is a very talented player and still looked in good touch when he played for Saints last year. The only problem he had was not being involved enough, which lead to the coaching staff wanting him to take the line on more. With some time to settle in I am sure he will get more and more involved. He will get extra ball at Cas so more time to have an impact. I suspect he will be in the dream team/England picture at the end of the year.

I think the only reason why Saints were happy to let him go is Lewis Dodd. However 2020 may be a bit early for him maybe 2021 is when he will make a bigger impact.

Saints players to watch are probably;

Jack Welsby: Another high quality Academy player and a big part of the England Academy's win over the Aussies a couple of years ago. This year should be his break out year, it is just a question of in what position given he can play almost anywhere 1,3,4,6,11,12,13, I guess it is down to what long term injuries Saints have in 2020.

James Bentley: Likely to become a starter in 2020 with Saints backline getting old. He does have a very similar style to John Bateman, if not the skill level yet, with his strong low centre of gravity running style. Just missing out on the Grand Final but a good bet to be on the bench at the start of the year.

Aaron Smith: The current player most likely to replace James Roby. He will spend a lot of the year covering for Roby who will not be playing 40+ games for 80 mins in 2020. A very accurate passer and a quick runner from dummy half.

Honorable mention to Matty Costello, who is very under-rated by Saints fans. He could play a much larger role for Saints in 2020 and is currently first choice backup for the centre, ahead of Welsby.