Assuming we finish 3rd, which looks likely, who do we want in the first round at home?
As it stands, we play Saints and despite recent performances, I wouldn't put it past them to turn us over. Especially as these days, we never know which team will finish with 13 men.
I would like Leeds, but with them playing Wigan and HKR away, I can't see it, unless one or both take their foot off the gas.
Salford, I think will finish 4th. That leaves Leigh, who could be pipped by Saints.
Personally, I would be happier with the Lobby-Gobblers, even though it would be a very difficult game.
Salford-Hull (A) Wigan (A) 32pts
Leigh-HKR (H) Saints (H) 31pts
Saints-Cas (H) Leigh (A) 30pts

I don't really care and I don't think it matters. Any of the top 8 are more than capable of beating anyone else and I know we can beat them all. Whether we can do so three weeks running is what we are about to find out.

I think Leigh will beat HKR this weekend and if Leeds need to beat HKR to get in the 6 then I wouldn’t rule us out of second just yet. If we finish 3rd I’d prefer to face Salford or Catalans but think the French might be out of it.

I big secret to winning a play off will be to play as the cleanest team that has ever graced a rugby pitch & keep all the men on the field.

I wouldn’t want to play Leigh. There’s just something about them which makes them a difficult team to beat. Similarly, Salford will cause a lot of problems with the ball in hand, but I think we could put some points on them.

On the showing of the weekend, Saints and Catalan are the two teams you would chose to play on form. Both of them look like poor tribute acts. Leeds are a bit of an enigma, they can turn up and put a good show on, usually reserved for games against Wigan.

I think we’ll stay third, then play. Leigh and Salford in the other game of 4th and 5th. Which could see Leigh go to Wigan, which would be an epic. With us or Saints having to play HKR.

IF Hull KR lose at Leigh on Friday night, we are quite capable of beating Huddersfield and London by sufficient points margin to overtake Hull KR on the same league points but with a superior points difference.

We could and should have scored an additional 12 points in the Saints game, which would have put us in a better position to finish 2nd.

What he said, I couldn’t care less who it is just beat them job done. No point avoiding anyone. All goes well we will be playing Wigan or HKR at some point.

If I could pick a team to play in the final, it would be Pies.
But other than that, I’m not R’st.

Just good to know we have qualified early doors, as for the rest…que sera sera as Doris (and the Fletcher End) used to sing.

We have a slight 'advantage' as there's a good chance we will know more about our prospects of 2nd place before our game at Huddersfield. It might still be all to play for, OR all over, but either way if it's 3rd then so be I'd have taken that at the start and the style of rugby any day of the week.

Each to their own but I won't be laughing at Saints just yet, particularly as they may end up as 6th. I'll be taking a leaf out of Kenny Rogers' book "There'll be time enough for laughing when the season's done".

I think I'd rather play Saints at home in the Play Offs than Leigh or Salford. We are notorious for not getting up for games against them type of teams in the play offs. At least we'll be up for a game against Saints.

I agree with you to some extent BUT I think that you are being disingenuous to Leigh and Salford, "them type of teams"...

Unless you are referring to teams that punch above their weight (in Salford's case), or have plenty of ex Wires in their team with a point to prove, both of whom are well coached and will feel with some degree of confidence that they have our number.

Oh yes I didn't mean any disrespect by that comment. It was more of a compliment of how good them two teams have actually been. Whilst they are the type of teams who you'd think we should have enough to beat, year on year they constantly punch well above their weight and as you say are extremely well coached. The job that Rowley has done at Salford this year has been outstanding. They are only 6 points behind us!

I am the exact opposite of that. Scarred by too many final defeats vs Wigan over the last 40 years.

Do you think Sam is scared by Wigan?

Scared or scarred? He's only got 1 wigan final defeat under his belt.

The teams that I fear are those that can gain big metres on the early plays and end up in a position to put attacking kicks in that they can challenge at the end of a set. That has been our Achilles heel all year.
Early in the season against Catalan at home Johnstone and Davies on the wings were eating up the metres and every kick that Abdul put in was challenged and they had a field day. Luckily for us Johnstone and Abdul are our of the team so that threat is not what it was.
However Hull KR can do that with Hall and Burgess , Hiku chewing up the metres and May or Lewis kicking so they do worry me.
It will all come down to containing those metres, pushing them back a few yards on those early tackles and making the opposition kick from their own 40m line.
I hope that Catalan can scrape into 6th as I think they play Hull FC and London and I think they don't quite have the personnel to trouble us in those areas.

If you fear anyone…
You will not be winning anything.

If you have no fear, it’s because you have the ability and the preparation correct.

It’s been along time, but me personally , I don’t fear anyone for this squad. I know we are the best team when we have it together, I’ve seen it. Just because it isn’t there now, doesn’t fear me for the play offs.

I admire your optimism, as I did your "we will win the lot" prediction a year or so ago.

We could easily have a CC final performance in any of the play off games.

Would it be seen as a disappointment if Wire didn’t make the Gf. Or looked upon as a season of progression under Burgess..

For me if we win a playoff game its a season of progress. Obviously we all want a GF win but we need to be realistic, we are outsiders this year.

Firstly, in response to the OP, I'm not really going to worry about who we meet in the play-offs. We'll get who we get, and it's up to us to be good enough on the day to beat them. As for the season as a whole, it has already been one of major progress in terms of level of performance, consistency, defensive determination, attacking quality, and development of exciting young players. Most of us, I think, feel much more optimistic than we did this time last year. Turning the potential into trophies is, as always, the elusive part, and I still fancy Wigan to win the GF this year, but Wire are certainly not without a chance.

We definitely have a chance, we will need to win 3 intense games of RL in a row across 2 weeks. This will require avoiding the big game "fatigue" as has been cited and also delivering our best game in a final (in contrast to our Wembley performance).

I really wouldn’t rule us out of top 2 just yet. See how HKR respond at the weekend. If they beat Leigh at their place after last weeks loss then fair play to em.

Yes fair play to them. In truth I cannot seem them losing 2 games, even if they lose 1 game and win the other the 59 points difference will take some over coming. First place is unassailable as Wigan will get at least 1 point across their 2 home games.