Jesus wept. Haven't been on here for a couple of weeks. Pick a topic that I think will be an interesting read to find it being derailed by that attention seeking, long necked African thing from over the hill. The first couple of pages went well, then we had twenty three posts from him/her of nauseating boredom with an argumentative slant. A chimp would be a more fitting avatar.

When you say "over the hill" are you meaning over the Billinge Lump, or "over the hill as in past it.
I come from Atherton you see and tend to get easily confused if things are not clear.

Probably both, now you come to mention it

It's Billinge Hill to real Billingers. It's only known as Billinge Lump by the "townies" and/or "settlers"



Or it could be Bill and Jill according to Stevo and Eddie!!!!!!

Feeling very confident for the coming season... And, i'm also confident that as well as winning, we SHOULD expect some entertaining play..

Aww bless. Did the saints fan have an opinion you didn't like? How dare he.

What Saints fan? You were put on this Earth merely to start arguments, weren't you?

And don't claim you're a bloke coming out with opening gambits of 'Aww bless' whatever that means.

Yellow Giraffe, I think you should wind your neck in!

On a serious note, it's great to see all the old rivalries warming up for the season. It's been a long wait but I can't wait for Thursday and
the weekends games.

FWIW, Wigan are strong favourites for me for the big prize and a fully fit first 17 has to be the best side on paper.
Wire have a good forward pack but I worry about our attack in the 3/4.
Got to say that I think the problem we'll have in our 3/4 will be extended across the whole Saints line up (not complaining though!).
Looking forward to seeing Cas play with Chase, and to see what Leeds will do.

I'm personally hoping that the big four (Wigan, Leeds, Saints and Wire) all have strong seasons. Hopefully they will be the four contesting the CC semis and GF semis as well.

Games between any of these four are the sports big ticket, fanfare, shout from the roof tops about our great game type of match ups. The game needs these them to be on top form.

I was taking to a couple of mates in Wigan last night and said the same about Wire. A superb pack but the backline looks ordinary to me and there's a real lack of pace in the halfbacks. During the conversation I could see a blokes ears prick up at the side of us, he was a Wire fan and in fairness he pretty much agreed as well.

As I said to him the pack is that good and superleague is that poor that Wire still have every chance of winning the lot though. If Wire had a player like Williams alongside Brown/Gidley and a quality centre then I'd have you as favourites.

I think this could the year for Wire.
I really would like another team outside the usual suspects to breakthrough but just can't see it. Personally I'd love Wakefield to finish in the top 4 but think they will run out of gas.
Leyth will surprise a few and finish in the top 8.
Widnes to finish bottom.
Albeit they were only friendlies I think they showed we will play a different style this season and if TL and GW can keep free of injuries I'm looking forward to a much more expansive style and hopefully playing with a much more uptempo approach.

Predictions? No idea really. It will as ever be decided by the team that goes into the playoffs with the best combination of fitness and form. We got enough back last year (particularly Faz) and found enough form to surprise many including me.

On paper Wire have to be the strongest opposition. Great pack on paper and the old adage "Packs win matches, backs decide by how many" is still true but we also have a very strong pack. Looking to be an exciting season. I am sure Leeds can't be as bad as last year. No idea about Saints.

We certainly need to be more entertaining this year and I think the early signs are promising. The amount of attacking players we have means we need to allow them to express themselves. They did that through the super 8's and we saw a real change in style that needs to continue.

Aside from your fist point Itchy i think we are on pretty much the same track. I am glad to see that somebody else actually rates Wakey as serious party poopers this year. Chris Chester is slowly buliding a very good side and also getting the youngsters tied down to long term contracts in the process. I have been long time advocate of Wakey dropping out because of their Sunderland like persistence of just hanging on every year with awful facilities but they haven't just cried off. They are making serious noises and have been for some time about a new stadium and for the last couple of years have shown a marked improvement in incoming players and youth and again this year it seems they have bettered it again. Too many people are writing them off. They aren't the whipping boys any more.

They will definitely not be pushovers and I would be delighted if they got to the CC final or made the top 4. Not sure of the strength in depth that they have but they appear to be building a pretty decent pack that could give a few teams a bit of trouble.
I can see them starting well like Widnes did last year I just hope they have a bit more bant than Widnes and just end up hanging on for a top 8 place.

I'm not sure how I'd feel if we start being more expansive, and more 'entertaining', but then lose.
Sometimes you just have to win doing the hard stuff, and I'm fine with that if we hold up the cup in October.

I'm with you. People forget that in 2012 in Waney's first season we did score a load of points and were far more entertaining than under Madge. We won the LLS at Hull KR in one of the finest comebacks of the Super League era.

It all counted for nothing as we lost to Leeds by a penalty in the playoff. The mood on here was that Wane had got it wrong and that winning by a cricket score in earlier rounds had done us no favours when it came to grinding out a result against battle hardened Leeds.

Of course we all want to be entertained by free flowing rugby, but to be honest I was more than happy with the entertainment on offer at Warrington, Hull and Old Trafford in the last few weeks of the season.

There is no way that Wigan would have been anywhere near to winning the league leaders shield or winning the GF if the team had not been able to battle through the season, it wasnt pretty but proved effective. It was a complete squad performance with every player that pulled on the jersey doing their bit to get the team to the play offs. If you look on the wire board there are some saying they wouldnt want to win "the wigan way". Well gritty whole hearted effort got wigan close and in the playoffs Widnes game apart they played entertaining enough for me.

m.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/38862223

m.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/38862223

Interesting. I don't disagree with the overall thrust of that article, but Tony Smith has consistently failed to land the big one, and Daryl Powell hasn't got anywhere near Old Trafford and has reached Wembley only once while coaching Cas (and losing).

I'm not sure the Wire and Cas fans will find stats like that massively entertaining.

A very strange article. It presupposes that Britain and Australia are playing on a level field.

The GF winning coaches in Super League prior to this decade have all (apart from Brian Noble) come from Australia or New Zealand. Nine in total. Only Brian McDermott and Shaun Wane can be added to that list from this decade.

It is hardly surprising that British Rugby League has tried to ape the NRL. Our own club required Australian methods under Madge to make us successful again.

Again the 'love-in' with Daryl Powell. I can't understand the media fascination with him. If he went back to Leeds we'd soon see him compromise his beliefs in favour of a winning style. Clubs like Wigan and Leeds demand winning rugby over entertainment. At Cas he can entertain all he likes because he won't get the sack for winning nothing. At Wigan if Waney doesn't deliver he gets the sack regardless of the entertainment value. Same with Brian Mac at Leeds. In any case Cas are hardly packing the fans in are they?

You make a good point. I suppose we can't expect every single game to enthrall us. We have to grind out the tough games in the tough weather. I suppose there is a time and place for expansive rugby. In the last quarter last season we had no choice but it was good to see that every member of our squad can play rugby in both disciplines whenever required. It gives us a great edge if we need to chase a game.

You cant beat a fair weather comment..

You have twisted the facts there a bit, haven't you? Aside from forgetting Ellery Hanley, You could equally say 5 of the 6 Grand Finals this decade have been won by British coaches, and that it was 50/50 in the early years. Antipodeans dominated 2006-2010 but that run is long finished, and doesn't look to change this year with Wigan, Leeds, Saints, Hull FC and Castleford all having British coaches. The only major exception is Tony Smith, who has been here for a very long time now.

The good thing about this kind of message board is that you can log on, spout whatever bo...x youwant and not be dragged over the coals by the liberal thought police (liberal as in free to agree with me). The Yellow Giraffe can say whatever they like and we are freeish to respond, within reason. As for the acusation that YG is a troll

They are more like "my little troll".