Yay! Hate it when Dimward predicts us to win stuff!

John Wells also predicting us to finish 12th - although his reasoning is:

"The recent departure of Anthony Tupou leaves a significant hole and I’m loathe to say it but a lot of their new players seem to have “arrived” at Wakefield rather than having been “recruited” by Wakefield"

Sometimes I wonder if any of them actually watch the games!

He'll think that's a clever and cerebral observation to make and no doubt urinate up his own Back about it.

Well, just my opinion about Schofield and I stand by it. He was a great player yeah, but but he wasn't as creative a SO in the same league as (as another has mentioned) Hardisty or Topliss. He was an ace poacher and reader of the game but at Stand Off, he's by no means at the top of the pile.

Schofield has been very critical of Trinity in the past, but in his recent columns in League Express he has been considerably less so. The way he's talked about young Johnstone in particular has been very encouraging. As for his rating as a No 6, very good, but he'd a long way to go before he could rate along Topliss for speed and agilty.

I think until we put a few more consistemt seasons behind us with back to back top 8 finishes we will always get written off.

I do think it will be tight but think we'll finish 7th.

The injuries picked up by Salford and Widnes lack of depth at 6 and 7 for the start of the season could play into our hands provided we start well

To be fair to him Schoey watches lots of games , and that includes amateur.He gets a lot of stick , but he actually does care about the game. Also involves himself in lots of charity/ rugby league events.

It's OK we will just have to prove them wrong Phil Clarke has tipped us to finish bottom as well

Don't you just love the experts forecast which are invariably wrong. I know if by some miracle one of them got a prediction right they would sing from the rooftops but this has surely got to be the biggest motivational tool Chris Chester has.
We have performed well in the pre season trials and recruited very well and have some of the best young talent in the British game so if that doesn't count for anything what does

If i had £1 for every time a pundit has predicited us to finish bottom of SL and been wrong, I'd be a rich man.





Although this is perhaps the bizzarest year for them to predict it.

Sorry I didn't make myself clear, I meant in today's game there isn't a 6 who could lace his boots. With the stand off or centre argument I have to disagree with you.

Not sure what they base their predictions on.
It could be based on a dislike of our club and more of ahope.

in the UK game sure - there are quite a few in the world game "fit to lace his boots" though.

sorry I digress - Millward is a dinosaur anyway.
I think its going to be really tight this year and difficult to predict.

It's all based on their like/dislike of a club, it's a worthless subjective opinion and the easiest option to take. If you look at it fairly objectively; we've signed more proven quality players than those who finished below us (and Widnes), we've a more stable and improved coaching setup than last year, we've won 4 out of 5 preseason friendlies, and we finished last season in 8th place having also made a CC semi final.

Again shows what a good season the SL 2017 is going to be. Just look how varied the predictions are from industry specialists, some have us as high as 6th some have us 12th, some have Hull 2nd others have them as low as 6th , several have Saints outside the top 4 some have them second. The only consistent predictions I can see from the expert pundits is that Warrington will finish in 1st or 2nd and Cas will finish in top 4.

Ah that's fair enough. None of the England standoffs since his day have been good enough.
Which is why we kept playing loose forwards there.

Much preferred Schoey in the Centres, than at Stand Off. I actually think Danny McGuire in his prime was very similar to Schoey, though not as good.

Not sure about ones since not been good enough. Love him or loathe thim, I would have liked to have seen Tompkins play at stand off more frequently, rather than at full back.

Toppo faster than Schofield, unreal, what game have you watched, Toppo was a class player, but speed ??? Schoey was in a different class at every aspect of rugby league to Toppo IMHO and also far quicker. Toppo couldnt score a full length Try, Gary scored loads. I think you should look at his stats and how many Try's he scored especially in the NRL where he was unstoppable.

Got to agree there, that's the only thing that let him down his inability to go the full length after the initial break.
Not doubting Schofield's speed which imo made him a better centre than stand off, wonder what Millwards thoughts on the matter would be.

Rubbish. Schofield may have scored many tries but Toppo created many more for others.
We're talking about the Stand Off role here, which isn't just about scoring individual tries it's more than that. Schofield would never have created the try that got WT to Wembley in '79 - just an illustration of the artistry of Toppo in the SO role.

You'd best not prove him wrong then. Unless you want him wobbling about your pitch starkers again.

To Be fair to C65, the quote he responds to states that Schoffield couldn't live with Topliss for agility and speed and I'm afraid to say that I think Schoffield was far faster than Topliss and at least as agile.

As a creative stand off Schoffield crowbarred open the Australian international teams defences to both score and create try's for himself and others so stating that he couldn't have unlocked the Sts defence in 1979 is far fetched.

Schoey v Toppo? Seen them both in the same Hull side, both magical players, my fondest memory of Topliss is his masterclass in the Elland Road replay of the CC Final v Widnes 1982. Both were greats, both had speed, although Schofield slowed down a lot during his mid twenties, both had vision and flair. Hard to choose a winner, really , but from what I saw of them both, for me as a true no6 Toppo just edges Schofield, who was also a brilliant centre. Like comparing Messi and Ronaldo, both brilliant, depends on your own perspective.

At the end of the day Avenger we all have our opinions and that's all they are. I would have been happy to have had both of them in my team but Toppo would have been at No6! I'll leave it at that!