We're still on course for top 6 by Rnd 23 and top 4 by Rnd 30.
That form is cup winning. CC GF win double and I'll pick up £1800

Btw
I picked up £600 this weekend thanks to Wigan and Widnes.... and I was only a try and goal off £9.5k

Well I for one hope you're £1800 better off by the end of the season.

Just to win more games than we lose and see where we end up

no one in 5th to 8th positions at the split (RD 23), has ever gone on to move up into the top four.

in the previous two seasons of the super 8's those teams in 4th position at the split have had 28 points......

28


We are almost half way through the regular season and we have 9......!!!

To get into the top four before the split, just one draw and two losses would be allowed......

To then stay in that top four throughout the 8's, go on and win the grand final and also win the challenge cup on the way, That would be the greatest ever run of results surely....???

That would knock the '86 premiership winning team's end of season run into a tin hat especially as that was a superb team and the current one isnt....??

but Good Luck with your bet ....I'd question the odds you got.. as I'd want a couple of extra zeros on the end of the £1,800 you're expecting if that came in......

in fact in Les dennis style if that happens I'll give you the money myself.....
[size=75(not really)[/size

I would just be happy not being relegated and the way things stand the middle 8s is a relegation we will no longer be playing in the top teir competition!! A grand final and challenge cup win would be a welcome bonus !!

It happened only last season. Cats imploaded.
Wire can take points off everyone from now till Rnd 23 and 4 off the Pies.
I'm giving Wire a max loss of 3 to make 6th and 3rd if we win every game, and Smith an OBE.
A top 4 at Rnd 30 is very possible from 6, it could mean your only 2 off 4th.

What happened last season. ??
The top four remained the same four but Hull dropped from 1st to 3rd.

Cats didnt implode they were 5th at rd 23 and finished 6th at rd 30.

The season before that was also very similar the top four stayed the same top four just that it was saints that dropped from 2nd to 4th by rd 30.

There is very little movement in the Super 8s as proved by Catalan in 2015. They hit some form at the end of that season and won 4 of their 7 super 8s games, the same as league leaders Leeds. Yet they moved up just one spot from 8th to 7th.

I admire your blind faith. .....its beautiful

I apologise my memory letting me down. I thought Saints charge and Cats flop came later.
Either way, it makes no difference if we are 5th or 6th at match one of the las 7 games providing we are up to 2 points behind 4th and scoring well will help.
It's all in our own hands that we finish 4th as a minimum.

Imagine the arguments about Smith in/Smith out on here, if we stage a miraculous recovery to finish 4th, and then get dumped straight out in the playoffs.

I'm happy for him to go wether we win the double or not, 2017 is the year of the mugwump.

Ahem.......and you were saying ...

Well beaten. ......
And saints back on song and putting distance between us in the league.

Back on thread title

More plop rugby
Brown stealing a wage
Gidley getting even worse, yet his fan club on here still blowing smoke up his Aris'
Evans still being rubbish
High kicks to opposition full backs
Poor discipline
Halves where no tries are scored
Dwindling attendances
Smith STILL here, deciding shirt numbers for 2018

Me still being a realist

more pain and anguish.

So with all teams having played 13 games we now have distinct subgroups emerging in the table.

Current top 4: Cas 20, Hull 19, Salford/Leeds 18
Challengers for the top 4: Wigan 15, Wakefield 14
Fighting to secure top 8: Saints/Catalans/Warrington 11, Hudds 8
Likely to be in bottom 4 and 'qualifiers': Leigh 6, Widnes 5

So the SL season for us probably boils down to trying to be in the top two of a mini league of four containing us, Saints, Catalans, Hudds. The win over Saints last week was really significant in this context - if they were on 13 and we were on 9 they'd feel a lot happier.

If we make it to the top 8, we'll probably find ourselves way off the pace of the top 4 and early on in the Super 8s we'll be out of contention. However, I'm basing that on averaging out our performance over the season as a whole. It has been two halves: 0 points from the first 6 games and 11 from the next 7. IF it turns out that the first 6 weeks were an aberration and the last 7 are more a guide to where we are, then the top 4 would still be on. If we pick up points at the same rate in the final 10 weeks before the split, we'd have 26 or 27 points which based on the last couple of years would have us a couple of points off the top 4 going in to the Super 8s.

I am sceptical at this point that we will do that but it is worth noting that the past 7 weeks have been a lot better. We have harder fixtures coming up now, so in practice for us to keep picking up points at the same rate, we'll have had to record wins over sides currently above us. Whilst this makes it less likely that we will...if we did, we'd have closed space on them all.

It's unlikely that we will make the top four but the run of harder games is paradoxically just what we need really since we can't rely on the top teams dropping points, we need to take them away.

I think a crucial aspect of the second half of the year will be squad depth and injuries. As a case in point look at Wigan, you would have to say that they were the favourites in February but they have been decimated by injuries and are now adrift of the top group. They will be hoping to merely stay in touch at the moment and hope they get their injured players back later in the season. In contrast we only have a couple of players with long term injuries (ATM) and we have decent squad depth. providing Wire can continue with their form we may have a chance of sneaking into the top four.

I can't see both Salford and Leeds hanging on in to the 4 Sally, one if not both will slip out by rnd 30.
This league is reading false after the disastrous period for Wire and now Pies. Saints are where they are and Cats will be looking for a new coach soon.
I believe a first choice Wakefield 17 to be stronger than that of both Salford and Leeds, and barring injury, could be the team that knocks on the door at number 4 and may doom either Wigan or Wire.

This league is reading false???? Best one since your pre season league prediction!

Wigan will be top four.

Realistically after round 23 we need to be within 2 points of whichever team is in 4th place.
It would be difficult (not impossible) to make up more than 2 points during the super 8 rounds.
At the moment Salford and Leeds are both 7 points clear of us.
So to be within 2 points of them we need to make up 5 points on them in the next 10 rounds.
Leeds play Cas at magic weekend so I guess they have to play them again after that which could help.
To get anywhere near the grand final from where we are now would be amazing. The thing is I think the group of players are good enough, if we click and somehow win our next 3 games then it could start to look achievable. On the same token on recent form (apart from the last 60mins against saints and they are shocking) we could loose all 3 then SL is pretty much over for us.

Funnily enough that's what I think as a cas fan and that's including if your the opposition.
Judging by your performance on tv today there's not one wire player what could get in the cas first 17

Well, since they've already lost arguably their best player, for the season, we'll never know...

If you believe a player is only as good as their last game then you are deluded, but not alone.

OK which Warrington players would be first choice at Cas, based on form over the full season?

My reasoning for it, is from the SL positions at present, it's a far greater challenge to Wire to make it in to the top 4 than it is for Cas, hence the odds at the bookies who also agree.
So as Wire are technically giving everyone a start being off scratch, it's a monumental task. So if they do it...they will win it.

I prefer to think of...... if Andy Lynch was on the open market at the end of the season which clubs out of the recent trophy winning teams Wigan Leeds saints Wire and Hull would snap him up? .. none...is the answer..

there are plenty of Cas players I would think "no thank you not for me".
We have one centre and I still wouldn't take Jake Webster for a gold clock. How far down the England Hookers Pecking order is Paul Mcshane...?

So who would get in the Cas side?

Clarke
Hill
Atkins
Any more?