Players under two year contracts who are unable to commit to full time. Hence why Sheffield have lost half there decent players

Does seem strange especially as the same plan backfired for Fev last season. Fax are no doubt a good team & will be competing for the top 4 but so will a few other teams. Not investing the money on improving the 1st team in such a competitive league when there's so much to gain being top 4 does seem a strange plan.

Sort of explains the FT/PT choice, but where is the money?

It was probably a much chewed over issue at our board level but they decided, and rightly so in my opinion, that we we build the right infrastructure at the club, build on solid foundations not sand!
I'm not sure how many players we would have lost going FT but I guess it would have been a few and the coach and board obviously believe we have a good enough squad to be able to push on from the progress we made in the second half of last season.

In the bank ready to spend if a) we are struggling to make the top 4, but more likely b) when we make the top 4 and might want to bring in some more quality.

Other bits of money were spent on improving things behind the scenes in preparation for eventually going full time.

Taking us out the equation

Bulls
Fax
Sheffield
London
Fev
Dewsbury
Batley
Oldham/Haven/Town in no particular order but hope Oldham stay up

1. Leigh
2. Bradford
3. Fax
4. Sheffield
5. Batley
6. Dewsbury
7. London
8. Fev

Not too sure on the rest. I think bradford will really struggle come the middle 8's as i cant see where they are going to get that next gear from with a lack of depth. I think they might be holding back and try to sign some quality late on as will Fax

Well let's hope they haven't moved the transfer deadline for the eights for your sake otherwise it may not go as far as you had hoped.

London and Sheffield will be stronger, Fev now have officially announced a DR agreement with Leeds. It will not be a walk into the top 4 for anyone.

I think a lot of people will get a shock just how much the middle 8's benefited some teams. Bradford probably wont make much difference as most of their players were used to playing at that intensity anyway. Sheffield have a whole new team so wont make any difference to them. Leigh will have benefited as they find out what their short comings were and I think Fax will benefit the most as we now know where the bar is set and know what intensity levels are expected and for the most part the players know they can hit those levels. I think for Leigh, Bradford, and Fax it will be a canter in to the top 3. Thats not me been big headed thats just the confidence I have from the performances I saw last season.

I suggest anyone who thinks it will be a canter for Fax to reach the top three in the Championship should get down to the bookies in double quick time.
The current odds for winning the Championship are:
Leigh 1/4
Bradford 6/1
London 18/1
Sheffield 25/1
Featherstone 33/1
Halifax 33/1

Why, even backing each way only pays second place?

You could ask the Bookie to give you a price without Leigh in the betting.

I missed this before but why will Sheffield be stronger? If anything they look distinctly weaker. Dewsbury also are getting tipped by some people but again I think they are a little weaker than last season. Only team in my eyes of the group pushing for the top 4 that have improved are Batley in my eyes. London should be stronger for a little bit of stability but Fev, Dews, and Sheffield look weaker.

What do we know anyway till the season starts. Wonder if Fevs Leeds players will be better than your HKR players.

Happy New Year

We know who has signed for who and given who we know Sheffield have signed and released it would be very fair to say that so far they are distinctively weaker than they were last season.

I think Fevs Leeds players will be better and there will probably be 100% more of them.

As we saw last year, the regular season is largely irrelevant as long as you finish in the top 4. For what it is worth I expect Leigh to finish top given the current squads.

I would also expect Bradford to have made a few more signings before the middle 8's so our squad could look quite a lot different by then. I guess it's a strategy with some risk but it seems we intend to spend our cap money closer to the business end of the season. If we play to our potential then a top 2 finish should be achievable.

Fax have enough about them to beat any side, so I wouldn't write them off but I don't think they'll manage enough consistency to finish in the top 2.

Just wondering who will be available as the season progresses, I'd have thought not many quality players but you never know.

It's a strategy with some risk, because the players might not necessarily be available. But usually players do end up being surplus to requirements for one reason or another as the season unfolds. We'll have quota spots available also so we might not just be looking at the competitions over here for potential new players.

I'd be happy for a top two finish and then to go up without the million pound game but it all depends on injuries etc at the business end IMHO

Hopefully top 4 (preferably top 2) will be sorted with games to spare so we can rest a few "key" players ready for the 8's

I'm not predicting anything about the Super 8s just yet as they're so far away & so much can happen before then. However I do think everything about Leigh Centurions RLFC this year is Super League Standard. If that's a higher standard than the bottom Super League clubs or if that quality can transfer its self to results when it matters only time will tell.

Top of the league.
Dodgy middle 8.
Fighting chance in the MPG.

Leigh have just two problems to overcome. The first is whether the assembled group of players can gel as a team, and the second is whether they can then have the collective mental fitness and fortitude to excel in the 8's.

You have a great coach, but getting the individuals you've recruited to perform will be a real challenge for him. Making the top four, and tbh, top spot in the Championship should be an assumption for you, but when it starts with the tough stuff in the 8's I'm not so sure you have the right leader to make the next step. Just my opinion.

My allegiance is obviously with Fax, and I do believe we can make a very creditable challenge this year, and I really look forward to our battles to come.

All the best for 2016, and hopefully a Championship team can make it through into SL for 2017!!

I understand where people re coming from when they point to the trouble these players had at Salford but I really don't think that'll be a problem at Leigh. Salford had a series of changing not particularly great coaches and a megalomaniacal owner in it for his ego who regularly publically blamed individual players when things went wrong, who seemed to want to be involved in everything despite having no RL experience. At Leigh we've got Paul Rowley who's said many times the number 1 responsibility of a coach is to ensure their players are happy & enjoying playing Rugby. We've got an owner & Director of rugby who loves being involved in Leigh and seems to be willing to do almost anything to ensure Leigh players are looked after and will defend the players to the hilt (too much so at times when trolls are just trying to get a rise out of him). Looking at behind the scenes videos, following the players on twitter & listening to them at LISA meetings and Q&A events they all seem happy & talk about the positive atmosphere "in the camp". Look at Hock, before he came he was a disruptive thug, with the support he's got at Leigh he's a different player. I'm confident the new players are already gelled into the team after the army camp, pre-season training together now all together in Lanzarote.

If the team has the mental fortitude to keep with it if things get tough in the Qualifiers, well in my opinion that was the main problem last year. Hopefully everyone will have learnt from that last year & know how to handle it next time. The experienced players brought in will also hopefully help with that.

My spin is that the players we have recruited are SL in all but name and have SL ambitions for 2017, they will not be wanting to hang around in this comp and as a consequence we are in very good shape