Today's league points are vital as all of them will be carried forward to next week & will be added to further as the play offs progress .This affects all teams in the 8 so the positions in the group could change weekly ,in theory anyway. If we were still using the old format the Wire would be stuck in 6th place as of now for the play offs.

That's what I think some people are ignoring really. The "Super 8" title makes it feel a bit like the play offs are starting in two weeks and Wires will be starting from sixth regardless of today's result. As it is, the title is just a marketing tool and the reality is that the Super League is simply continuing for another seven weeks. Today's result - as it's against one of the two teams we are directly competing with - will be the difference between being still in sight of fourth or simply too far adrift. It's massive.

From the point of view of the Eights in general, today is the difference between five teams aiming for the play offs and six teams aiming for them.

I think we'll need 5 wins from 7 to have a chance of top 4. That has to include beating Cas and Hudds.

Seems simple to me , we have 7 games to make up 4 league points and overcome 50 GD ,beat huddersfield and we won't be far off

Correction,, 48 points difference

Les Cats could have a big say in the final placings & which team finishes top. They have home games against Leeds ,Saints & Cas.

It's not those clubs we trying to chase down. Our target is Hudds and the slimmest hope of Wigan.

In the old system when Leeds finished outside the top 4 they always had to go and beat top teams away from home in crunch games and they did that. If we are actually thinking about being champions (rather than sneaking in to 4th so we can lose a semi) then we would need to be good enough to do that. If we win a couple of away games against top teams plus our home games we'll be right in it.

If we are good enough to win SL this year we will be in that final 4 without a doubt. If we aren't then the problem isn't the format.

No our answer to it is stumping up an advance on a £250k assets, teams shouldn't really be mega bucking at the back end to buy progress.

Of course you are right RD ,But Hudds Have to play Leeds ,Saints ,Wigan & Hull all away from Home , so any of those ,if not all could open a way for us to overtake Hudds & Les Cats could take care of Cas. Our end of season run suddenly doesn't look as bad if we can keep our upturn in form.

Castleford have no real stars in their team, they are all brilliant hard workers which is why they do as well as they do. But I'm not convinced they can keep that up consistently for 7 weeks.

If we beat Huddersfield then we are 2 points behind them, so we aren't as far off as people are making out.

We seem to be hitting form at the right time and the arrival of sandow can only improve us.

Cas have Leeds ,Wigan,Hudds & Les Cats away.

You are forgetting a very significant swing of f/a points advantage too.
In all essence we are 2 results behind them, we are extremely unlikely to make that disadvantage up playing quality teams taking into account that we even beat them, which is also a must.

Huddersfield usually collapse this time of year. I'd be surprised if they won any game other than against Hull, Cas and Catalans. Warrington can win all 7, if nothing else because they need to win more than the top 3 sides and the rest are borderline easy-beats. Your only problem could be the challenge cup final. Can you win the games pre and post that if the opposition isn't involved themselves? That's where it may get tricky.

According to the league table we have a better points difference than Cas, but not Huddersfield who have a good defensive record this year.

Saddo, Huddersfield have learnt much. They arnt a collapsing side any more. Their defence is as good as anyone's.
They could impload only of Brough gets suspended for a brain trump.

We'll see.

Does anyone know what the televised fixture format for the Super 8's will be? As there are only 4 fixtures each week for the top 8 will that mean that most of them are televised? And how many from the middle 8's are likely to be televised?

We need Castleford to win at Huddersfield.

I hope Leeds & Saints don't run out of steam after their season long chase for the hub cap with improved financial incentives which will not be awarded till round 30 . We need these teams to do us favours till at least round 30.

I can see Huddersfield losing 4 games. Leeds and Wire at home, Saints and Wigan away.

If that happens I think we are capable of winning our 3 home games against Hull, Catalans, Wigan and also win away at Cas and Huddersfield.

We gave ourselves a shot with yesterdays result ,not only the win but ,putting some points on ,huddersfield couldn't have been happy only putting 10 pts on wakey , 48pts is still a lot to put on quality sides ,this may come down to the Sandow factor and whether he can deliver instantly

It is a MAJOR IF, BUT and MAYBE, and possibly beyond us, but, if we look on the bright side that results do go our way elsewhere, and we win our games then the 48 point deficit with Hudd's can be wiped out.

A result like yesterday, but, against Huddersfield, would give us a massive swing of 76 points difference, we'd be reliant upon making up another two league points and they would have the points difference monkey on their back.

First beat Hudd's, ideally by +24 game on, depending upon timing of fixtures get them out of any comfort zone

NTW

Beat Hudds by 10 and the difference is down to 28. We need them to lose another game whilst we win. They lose that game by 10, we win ours by 10 and down to 8 points.
If we can put a winning run together and catch them I think we are far more likely to run up one or two larger scores than Huddersfield. Points difference isn't likely to be the problem, it's beating them and then winning one more game than they do (can't totally discount Cas either).

48 points difference isn't really very much if we win 5 out of our 7 games. I'm delighted that we're playing Catalans at home and Hudds are playing them away. Strange that we're now talking about a Top 4 place when only a couple of weeks ago some were discussing the Middle 8's.