Based on Wigan's and St Helens' recruitment, plus Leeds having a better injury free run. Is fourth realistically the best we can hope for next season? Or do you people see us as going 1 or maybe 2 better? Or will we find it hard to reach the same heights with the added pressure/ expectancy?

I can't see past St Helens for top spot, Wigan and Leeds 2nd, and Wire 4th. Hoping I'm wrong but would 4th be that big a disappointment?

I wouldn't mind finishing fourth if we managed to show up in the Play Offs.

Agreed, 4th or 5th i can see us finishing, Wigan have signed 3 top players with another rumoured to be coming in, plus Gareth Hock returning mid-season. Saints have finally got some help for James Graham with Perry and McCarthy-Scarsbrook already signed up, add to that Shenton in the backs. Leeds will probabley make at least one marquee signing with Eastwood going back to Aus. Then theres Huddersfield who have signed an excellent loose forward in Luke O'Donnell.

My top 5 predictions for 2011

1 Wigan
2 St Helens
3 Leeds
4 Wire/Hudds
5 Hudds/Wire

no we will finish higer than 4th as smith will make sure there is an improvement not going backwards. wigan and saints have recruited as they didn't have good enough players at their disposal.we havn't recruited except for brett as that the only area where we wasn't good enough

Really? The top 2 in the league and the two teams in the GF, who both have built their teams around players from their own academy.

The three players coming in for Wigan are replacing 4 overseas players, 3 of which aren't good enough to get in the side on a regular basis due to the quality of youngsters.

FWIW I think it will be extremely close between the top 4. I think it will come down to injuries to the key players (Briers, Tomkins, Sinfield + Roby)

Have to agree with you there, recruitment apart, i cant see us being as fortunate with regards to injuries as we have been this year. (Am a little worried about how we would cope with more injuries, if indeed we are unfortunate enough to experience them next season).
Pains me to say it, but i do think that Wigan have strengthened an already very strong squad and will be the team to beat next year, Leeds wont be as unlucky with injuries, but i do feel that St`s will miss Cunningham in a big way next term, so Third for them IMHO.

just saying they recruited as they need the player to replace then. we havn't recruited much as we don't need to. just as we bought less players doesn't mean that we are going to finish below them. have faith.

ISWT!

I think Cunningham is a quality player, but I feel his impact is more on reputation than skill these days. If someone offered you Roby or Cunningham for the next 5 years (regardless of age) i'd take Roby everytime as I think he's a much better player.

Next season, hopefully the crowd won't be waiting for Cunningham to be on the pitch as he won't have been on it to start with.

I think the signing of Perry, coupled with Soliola being fit gives them a massive pack next year, with decent young backs behind them.

They will be the team to beat imo.

But that's my point, Wigan have finished top and are in the GF without the players we're replacing. Riddell would be the only real loss.

Same with Saints, they've finished second with Maurie F (Perry) and Wheeler (Shenton).

Neither side is facing big losses in key personnel (bar Cunningham).

Won't a majority of the warrington first choice 17 be over 30 next year? Looks like you've simply stood still whilst the teams around have moved forward. On paper, at the moment in time I can only

1, Wigan/Saints
2, Saints/Wigan
3, Leeds/Huddersfield
4, Huddersfield/Leeds
5, Warrington/Hull KR

What warrington fans forget is this season, Warrington had the least injuries of any team, whilst the top 3 teams decimated by injuries were Saints Leeds and Wigan. If these 3 teams can stay injury free Warrington will be 4th at best and once again, easily ejected from the play offs

Cunningham will be a big loss to St H but maybe it could give Roby a new lease of life. Perry and LMS will certainly bolster their forward pack.

Wigan has simply improved their squad by signing better players. Which will make them a force.

Lets just wait and see eh?

We have a more attacking fullback and a decent goal kicker coming next season that should help.

I also think we'll finish around 4th next season, we have quite a few players in the 30+ club and that could tell against the teams that have recruited well for next year like Saints and Wigan. Leeds havn't really shown their hand for next year, their in a similar boat to us.

Our biggest problem seems to be strength in depth, our youth system isn't as advanced as other clubs with it being a fairly new regime that took control of that setup. It may be a few years yet before we see that come to fruition, the scrum half spot is still a bit of an enigma, will Tony Smith put more faith in Richie Myler next season or has something gone on that we don't know about. One things for sure and thats Monaghan needs to stay at 9, if you move him away from 9 you lose the real Michael Monaghan.

Like its been pointed out already, we were fortunate with injuries this season. How wwould we cope if we got a similar injury list to that of Saints and Leeds this season, i wouldn't have thought very well because we don't have the luxury of a Matty Smith or a Scott Moore lurking in the background plus we have nowhere near the same amount of youngsters that look ready for the step up like saints have produced in recent times.

It will be a lot tougher next year, just look how Salford have recruited then you have Huddersfield who are steadily improving each year, Hull are just a few players away from being a realistic force again and Hull KR had a decent season this year.

I'm looking forward to next season, some high quality players arriving at other clubs will make it very interesting and a better spectacle.

Do players stop playing well once they hit the big 30?

Funny to see Wigan fans rating Saints again at the start of the season you lot had a thread writing them off this year and the next few years.

This year Saints beat us on points difference (rather dodgy try if you ask me!!) and Wigan were not that far ahead. The one area we were VERY bad on in 2011 was goal kicking. If we had a good reliable CONSISTENT kicker we would have been ahead of Saints and possibly challenging if not beating Wigan for top spot. That was how close 2010 was and if we can be that close again next year I'll be happy.

Only when the likes of the Evans brothers step up into Super League will we know what we have.

I don't think our Youth set up is that bad. Riley, Harrison, Cooper are all first teamers now. But overall our squad is a lot less likely to deal with injuries as well as St Helens did.

We have an injury stance as "well we lost to crusaders but we had 5 first teamers out".
St Helens have one of "we don't care who is out injured we'll just have to beat them without our first team players".

If all our old players are more susceptible to injuries how come they never got injuries this year?

Although it is obvious that youngsters are much more capable of playing on through injuries and recovering quickly - see Kyle Eastmond for proof.

As for us standing still whilst Wigan and Saints have progressed recently there are two Challenge Cups that might beg to differ, let alone going from 10th to 3rd but don't let that stop anybody dragging Warrington down whilst bumming up Wigan fans.

Apart from the last post, this is a ludicrous thread. I don't think there is a shred of evidence for the suggestions that we have little strength in depth or that our squad is older than it should be. Wigan did not have an injury crisis this year either.

we're standing still

Is anybody in Wigan aware of this injury crisis?

Makes me laugh this 30 plus comment that keep raising it's head how long as the morleys ,cunninghams, longs, fitzgibbons menzies need i go on etc been in their 30's doesn't matter one jot if your fit your fit end of i've seen 70 year old guys running 7 minute miles in races its all down to the individual how fit they keep them selves personally i think kc could have done at least another year

We've had a lot of injuries at different points this year, fortunately though they haven't been to key personnel like Sam or Richards or Fielden, i.e. the players people notice.

Precisely. We missed Briers, Bridge, Clarke, Carvell for good stretches this year. Others missed here and there. Neither of us had big injury problems this year which is probably why St Helens and Leeds didn't finish as the top 2.