No I mean Bridge and penny. I'd rather see penny replace Riley than Joel

Who plays centre to Joel?

Reasons to be cheerful;

1. TS has a pretty good track record at recruiting. I can't think of one of his Wire players that has really disappointed.

2. Briers and Morley only played in approximately half of our matches last year - we were already in transition in 2013. Yes, they will be missed in the decision making and marshalling side though.

3. We focus on a departing players strongest attributes when they retire, and think in terms of a direct replacement. We can not replace Briers, but a half decent coach will use the different strengths of his players, and adapt the play accordingly.

4. Whilst the top 5/6 teams are probably quite well matched, there is a gulf in ability to the next 7/8 teams. It is difficult to imagine us finishing below 5th. And look how close an unusually poor Saints side came to getting to another GF.

5. Both the CC and SL are knockout competitions. Any team in the top 5 on their day can beat any other team. Plus lady luck can also have a say -look what happened with Wigan in 2013, they had a bye to the CC final, then met a Hull side that thought they were the cast of 'comedy of errors'.


It will be a very different side next year, and I would agree that silverware is less likely. But we always knew that we would have to pay the price of a very stable squad at some point. Where I disagree with some of the other posts, is that I think the main price we are paying is 'uncertainty' rather than an uncompetitive side.

So what we're saying is we can't move two wingers and two centres about just to see what happens? Either way whatever we say on here won't make a blind bit of difference.

It's a forum for opinions, and in my opinion they would make a good partnership. I don't really seewhat the issue is.

Most are saying we won't do as well as we have in previous seasons. But the Bookies have us as favourites to win the League, the G/F & the CC.

Who were favourites last season?

Agree with a lot Winslade's, and to be fair with the departing players we won no silverware last year, so the changes can only get better (IMO)

At the start of the season I think it was Wigan with us as 2nd favourites. The bookies were right in that Wigan won the 2 major comps and we reached the G/F & in my opinion would have won if it were not for 2 injuries during the game. We also made the semi of the CC.

Last season the Bookies were spot on in making Wigan favourites & us 2nd favourites.

Last season before a ball was kicked warrington were favs in hills and betfred

I reckon Leeds target with the ageing squad is to win the challenges cup.

Warrington's best target looks the grand final

Right and from 5th and all, yes imagine all the uproar if that happenned. I agree we shouldn't even try and get back to Wembley and win the cup we've no chance too many challenges

I'm just catching up with the Sky Review of last season (it's very good, better than previous versions, although whether I'll watch the last 20 minutes or not, I've not yet decided). However, as you rewatch last season, it's so obvious that Wigan, Warrington, Huddersfield, Leeds and St Helens are the five teams who are going to be battling it out for the places in the Grand Final and I see no reason why this year will be any different.

I didnt say warrington shouldn't try to win the cc Rico!?
Personally given a choice I'd take the cc over all competition every time.

I do think Leeds can will all competitions this season and settled class side of ageing players wont hinder them unless they suffer injuries.

Pound for pound 1-13 leeds stand out as the best.
Saints look 2nd best.

Betfred have us at 13/10 to win either the LLS, the CC or the Grand Final.

I agree with every word Getdownmonkeyman has just posted.
Any of Hudds, Pies , Leeds , Wire and Saints could win the prizes this year. It will be interesting.
Us Saints fans are more optimistic due to the fact we have addressed our biggest weakness ie. props , half back and kicking game, a lot will depend on how our very young 3/4 line perform.
Leeds are exact opposite , frightening 3/4 but their best forwards(props) are no spring chicken.
Big ? over how Wire and Wigan will replace the players you've lost -only time will tell.
For me the danger team will be Hudds having the benefit of last year plus a settled set up.
A lot will have to do with injuries - every team has a couple of players they CAN'T afford to lose. The fitness of players like Walsh ,Roby , Brough , O'Loughlin , Peacock , Sinfield , Hill , Higham will have a big effect .

The players who spent the most time in the treatment rooms last season were Briers, Morley and Hodgson. I am hoping our now younger squad will offer more game time per player.

I see that Saints are being tipped to have a big season again this year. Not surprising really with a three-quarter line of Makinson, Turner, Jones, Swift feeding off the distribution of Hohaia at stand-off. That'll take some stopping.

Was it this time last year that Gaskell and Lomax were going to be the half-back partnership to rip SL to shreds and guide England to World Cup Glory?

We'll be better than last season, I'm not sure Wire or Leeds will be though.

Wigan and Hudds the teams to beat for me and I think it'll be an interesting year ahead.

We'll soon find out who'll take some stopping.

The sad thing is, this thread is pretty irrelevant - The whole thing is now based about how good a coach and his back-up staff are at getting their teams peaked for September/October time.

The skill is now about not overusing players, making sure you have enough points to be in a challenging position come play-off time (top 4 or 5), and giving the Challenge Cup a good go.

Is it little wonder that its difficult to get people enthused about the regular season, now it is merely a canter towards the proper race that is play off time?

We only get better if the changes coming in are better than those going out.

I look forwards to the posts on here this season saying stuff like

"I'm really glad we brought Asotasi over from the Aussie league and got rid of Carvell, that was a very positive move, we never won SL with Carvell did we"

Saints are moving in the right direction even if they need reinforcements and aren't what they were a few years ago...we might laugh at those youngsters but are ours really that much better, despite the hype on here? You can be sure if those lads had come through at Warrington there would be all sorts of posts about how bright the future was and that would be our backline for the next 10 years.

Saints are like us....a team thats a credible shout of winning a trophy albeit not the front runners, the difference from the Saints of old is they don't go in to the season with the bolshy confidence of knowing that everybody is scared of them, because they are a team of talent without the handful of dominant big guns that used to drive them on like Sculthorpe and Cunningham. In the past few years we've had the edge over them because they've been rudderless in terms of senior players whilst we've had Briers, Hodgson, Morley and Carvell but now they've gone suddenly where's our advantage over them? It's based on hoping a lot of "ifs" like Asotasi will be as good as Carvell, England will be the next Chris Hill, Russell is going to be the find of the season, Ratchford and Myler/GOB will click in the halves and seamlessly replace Briers. If those don't come off then looking at it without the primrose and blue tinted glasses, Saints have now overtaken us and will likely finish above us in the league and have more chance of winning trophies, even if they are still a bit behind the likes of Hudds.

It was fun having the edge over Saints for a few years but those days may be over.

1 - Leeds
2 - St Helens
3 - Huddersfield
4 - Wigan
5 - Warrington
6 - Catalans
7 - Salford
8 - Hull FC
9 - Hull KR
10 - Widnes
11 - Castleford
12 - Bradford
13 - Wakefield
14 - London

We will win it from 5th you've heard it here first.

I think we're going to have to win it from 8th!

Not looking that bad of a prediction now.
1st impression as they say.