Personally I think the eights are done & dusted for part one.

The conundrum for me is who'll finish where. Cas & Leeds will make the top four but as to where the other six will finish, I couldn't call it.

Of the bottom four I think Catalans are the most at risk, there just seems to be no fight in the squad, maybe their new coach can rectify the malaise.

Ask anyone that has watched SL over the last 15 years.

Or how about asking people who don't support Wigan, Saints and Leeds?

Yes your right but I was saying before today's result, mathematically Warrington could still have caught us if they won all remaining 6 games and we lost all remaining games. Same with Catalan

after this weekend's games the top 5 like they have qualified. saints and wigan look likely but no means certain (saints v hudds 'extra' match looks more important now, and wigan need to break their losing run). looks more likely to be 4 of widnes, leigh, wire, hudds and catalan, but as mentioned above always the intriguing possibility of someone else getting dragged into it

And Wire, Huddersfield, London, Bradford, Hull KR, Catalans and Widnes?

The current bottom 4's points differences are very bad compared to Hudds, Wigan & Saints so that acts like an extra point they need to make up. Widnes and Leigh have done ok the last few weeks to pick up a couple of wins but think they've left it too late to escape.

Warrington and Catalans look broken ATM and tough to see them doing better than Hudds in the remaining games. If Catalans get a new coach in ASAP it could shake things up. Even if they don't avoid the bottom 4 these two teams at least need to find a bit of form to take into the Middle 8's otherwise it'll be a lot trickier than they think. You don't yet how the fixtures will pan out and if you get one of the harder ones first up and lose it will definitely add pressure and nerves.

I can't really see Catalans and Warrington winning 4 out of the 5 remaining games to escape the demotion to the middle 8's. Leigh and Widnes would need to win 5 out of 5 and thats not going to happen. Saints and Huddersfield have improved a bit and should win a couple more games to get near 20 pts, likewise Wigan who will have some players back from there injury crisis.

Leigh's next 4 games are all against the teams around them , albeit all away , Widnes,Cats,Warrington then Giants , we feel all are potential wins , 18 points could be enough this year IMO

In 2006 Hull reached the grand final. They were beaten by a St Helens side that many would regard as the greatest in the SL era. The Hull side of 2016/17 is imo superior to the 2006 vintage yet last year we didnt make the GF and currently sit 4th.

Its a different style of rugby these days, alot of people don't think its changed for the better, and they may have a point. The quality however hasn't fallen. Thats just something the fans of what were top clubs like to trot out to make them feel better about now being mediocre.

Are injuries affecting SL more than in the past ?

I doubt it. Hudds only need to win 2 of 6 to get to 18 and have a much better points difference.

You could pick up a few wins and enter the Middle 8's in decent form though and you know what that competition is all about compared to some of the others so I think you could be fine getting through it.

I'd say definitely so. In the last 3/4 seasons nearly every team has a bad patch with up to 7/8 first teamers missing chunks of games. It simply wasn't like that 10 years ago, you might have gotten maybe 2/3 teams with really bad injury runs.

Catalans remind me of Salford last season, they seem in total free fall, and all the top teams in the Championship are going to be going into the 8s in great form, and they seem stronger than the top 4 of last season. I'd be very worried if I was a Catalans fan.

Agree with this. I have sympathy with the argument that it's not as good to watch as, say, 10 years ago but I'd very much disagree with the argument that the quality has fallen.

This Cas team.on his day..... would beat many of the past superleague winners teams. The game has evolved to different styles therefore can not be compared. If Wigan were at full strength we all know they would be pushing top spot this year also. Thats the only difference this year.

In a regular season game maybe, but no way it would it beat the Saints, Bulls and Leeds teams (play off version) that have pretty much dominated SL between 98-12 imo.

I like the Cas team BTW and the style of play. I may change my opinion if you can go all season long and win silverware but for now its just another Huddersfield like situation.

yes, because its not always possible to spend your way out of an injury crisis now with salary cap constraints. this is why the salary cap should be encouraging clubs to invest more in their own youth, this is not being done to the same extent at all clubs

2005 grand final saw a Leeds side that included McGuire, Sinfield, Burrow, Ellis, McKenna, Bai, McDermott, Lauitiiti take on a Bradford side that included Peacock, Morley, Hape, Vianikolo, Fielden, Vagana, Radford, Paul, Harris, Deacon, Pryce,

That 2006 Saints side included Sculthorpe, Graham, Roby, Hooper, Lyon, Wellens, Long, Pryce.

Super League simply doesnt have that quality of player in it at the moment. Not in depth nor in first teams. Put together a dream team of SL players from this year and id take any of those Leeds, Bradfords or Saints squads against them.

The competitive clubs didnt spend their way out of an injury crisis, they were the ones with the you development systems that were bringing through players (and largely still are). The injuries have their effect because A) there are too many games. More games = More injuries. and B) the salary cap excludes any real reserves of specialist talents. Teams can't afford to have 2 fullbacks or 3/4 or 4 halfbacks or 4 hookers. What this means is that you are replacing a fullback with a utility back, with 2nd rowers, halfbacks with fullbacks or looseforwards, hookers with utilities. 2 or 3 injuries in the wrong positions and suddenly squads are all over the place.

This also impacts on youth development as specialists are less valuable than utilities. If a club has a choice between a decent young or an ok one that can play 2nd row, they take the inferior player and jettison the specialist.

Not a chance of beating the Leeds, Bradfords, Wigan's and Saints team in there prime, the quality, skill level and intensity was much higher in the first 12 years of Superleague. We are only 18 games into the season and no major honours achieved so far so thats a pretty big statement to make that Cas would be the best of the best superleague champions. Looking good for the hubcap though.

Ah ... nostalgia!

But even that is not what it used to be!

Is not having the best talent spread evenly across twelve teams not better for the game than having them clustered in three or four teams? Given time this will (in my opinion) raise the overall standard of the game in the UK.

It does, of course, mean that the 'big four' concept is defunct... a situation that the traditional 'big boys' and their fans will not like as it seemingly reduces the quality of their team by not being able to 'Hoover up' all the best talent.

Im not saying over a season we would beat them but in a 1 off game when we are on top of our game playing the free flowing rugby we do.... Our skill level when we are like this is second to none and not many can complain on that part.

Its something we can never compare so its a pointess conversation anyway.

Smokey TA has the great example above with the Bradford side, no way is the current Cas side anywhere near the power, skill level and mental toughess of that squad of players, didn't they go 20+ games undefeated similar with the Saints side both these teams had the "invincibles" tag from what I can remember. Its far too early to blow the Cas trumpet they havn't won anything at all yet and will be tested when we come to the business end of the season, thats probably the best time to claim bragging rights.

The best Wigan, Leeds, Bradford and Saints sides just wouldn't allow Cas the advantage of free flowing rugby and the Cas defence would be seriously tested. However if there was a cup for entertaining rugby over a season they would certainly win that.

But it isn't that those players are spread across the 12 clubs. These players simply aren't in SL.

Name me a prop I'm SL right now who is as good as Peacock Fielden or Morley were in 2005? I can't think of one even close and those three played for one side.

Name me a playing now who was in the class of Senior, Lyon or Hape? There's probably only a couple who would compare to Chris McKenna who was Leeds 3rd choice.

Danny McGuire in 2005 was unstoppable. In 2017 he can't run, is Leeds only halfback and we are joint 2nd

And that doesn't even mention the likes of Cunningham, Lauitiiti Graham. Sculthorpe.