We finish 6th
Round one will be Catalan at home.
Round two will be Saints away as we will be the lowest placed team left in and Saints will finish top but lose at home in week one.
Round three we will get picked on club call by Castleford.
Grand Final we will beat Leeds 21 - 20

Someone had a shandy with their Sunday lunch...

My route is the train to Victoria then the tram to the ground.

Unless one of you gets clubcall then I think you'll probably be made to play Leeds in the semis

6th is the new 4th, which last season was the new 5th.

The good Doctor at Salford is saying why can't we have a new 9th.

Way too many big games left to event plan this stuf yet!

Mate,,can you give me the Lottery Numbers for this Saturday,,,Or 8 aways on the Footie Coupon...

Finishing positions are becoming increasingly irrelevant , both Wigan and Leeds have proved this , four wins on the spin and that's it .

How about four defeats on the spin !
Seriously wouldn't write you off but don't people realise how difficult it is to do the double I think fatigue might catch up with you, by the way how does Peacock keep going !

Leeds can't catch us now so for us to finish outside the top 4:

Warrington need to beat us.
Castleford need to win one game against either Wakefield or Catalans.
Huddersfield need to win two games against Bradford and St Helens.

There's every likelihood that Castleford and Huddersfield will do enough IMO - I think we'll need to avoid defeat against Warrington to avoid finishing 5th.

It may also be a take your pick scenario - Saints beat Huddersfield, win a trophy and we finish in the top 4 or Huddersfield beat Saints, Saints end up empty handed again and we finish 5th!

I'd take 4th and Saints winning the LLS. They can celebrate it all they want but it's a nothing prize as we know only too well.

Finishing outside the top four will really reduce our chance of getting to and winning at Old Trafford IMO.

I'd take 4th and Saints winning the LLS, as it makes it better when we go there and beat them the week after.

Even better, let them lose and Cas take the hub cap. We beat the Dire to finish 3rd and still play them in the 1st round of the play-offs.

Why wasn't that offered as an option in the first place



I'll choose that one.

Now that's a plan !

Four league defeats on the spin if you please



I agree with you btw , which makes last year's double by your team a real achievement .

What I meant was league positions are becoming largely irrelevant whereas form and momentum and play-off experiences are paramount , which makes home advantage etc.. less of a straightforward pass to OT .

If any two of Wigan, Leeds or Warrington finish 5th and 6th they could still have a very good shot of reaching Old Trafford. A home game to Widnes or Catalans followed by an away game to a week one loser. That route could even be better for Wigan than coming 4th!

It's abit of a catch 22 situation. 4th is a better route, but only if you hammer it home and win the first game thus getting the week off. If you lose the first game, then it's a worse position than 5th/6th. Finishing 5th/6th gives you a better chance of winning the first game than finishing 4th because you are playing a much lower ranked team and playing at home. You then go into week 2 with a good win and some momentum, against a beaten up team who's just lost.

That's always been my problem with this top 8 format. An 8 team playoff series was always too many for a 14 team league, but I can see why it was brought in when P&R were scrapped, otherwise the majority of the league would have had nothing to play for for the last 3 months. But there were much better ways of structuring an 8 team playoff that would've rewarded finishing position.

Wigan have shown they don't perform well after a week off. A momentum building game against Widnes/Cats could well provide a better route to OT for us.

I think as long as the team is mentally and physically fresh enough, that is the better route. I don't think the week off is any real advantage to a team that doesn't really need it.

It's all about attitude rather then having a week off that costs us. We did ok with a week off in last years play offs before we beat Leeds at the DW for example.

We could win it from either route but I'd fancy our chance more in the top four even if we get a week off.

Right, my initial predictions were poop so how about this....

Castleford lose in France so Saints win league leaders shileld
Huddersfield win their last game.
Wigan beat Warrington
Week 1 .... We would be second and play Huddersfield at home
Week 2 .... Week off as we beat Huddersfield but saints lose to Castleford so we have club call for week 3
Week 3 .... We pick Leeds leaving Castleford to play Warrington
Wigan 27, Castleford 12 in the Grand Final

Leeds could suffer from not having had a week off all season.

Let's see how we go against Wire but I'd like to play Cas in the playoffs having lost to them in the cup. It would also be fun to be able to spank Saints and end their season. I'm not really worried about anyone other than the Rhinos as long as Wigan can continue to turn up and improve like they did on Friday.

Not a prediction but i would enjoy this.

Week 1 beat Cas away.
Week 3 beat Saints at home.
Week 4 beat Leeds at OT.

It's all depended on our cup run in previous seasons. In 2010 we got knocked out in the QFs so had already had two weeks off by the time the playoffs came round. The defeat to Leeds in round 1 of the playoffs was a blessing in disguise IMO, as it meant we got another game to put things right. In 2011 and 2012 we had gone further in the cup and we looked desperate for the week off, once we'd lost the round 1 playoff game it was the nail in the coffin. Last year we'd gone all the way in the cup, but managed to win week one in the playoffs which meant we got a much needed week off. This season has gone the same as 2010, and the team look like they would benefit much more from game time than a week off.