Teams are going to be ready for us up front a but more this year I'd imagine .
If we can win the majority of the forward battles like we did last year our attack could be seriously devastating this time round.
Top 4 should be the aim , and a nice trouncing of leeds would be a nice

Ellis is the key - He's probably in his last season and we all know how much of a different side we are with him in - with him playing a majority of games we'll finish top four, without him were top eight. Once he goes (and possibly Mini) theres no one presently at the club goof enough to step up as i dont rate Hadley

Also think this could be they last year. If so think we need another top drawer 2nd rower. Hadley is no world beater but IMO big year for him.as I like his attitude and hard running. Also turgut could turn out to be a good player for us. Interesting times.

Looking at that catalan squad, I dont think they will be either, look very strong on paper, walsh and myler stay fit (which is unlikely) they could have a very good year. As far as us goes, no reason why we cant push for both trophies really, like a few others, worry about injuries to our forwards and having the players that can step in and make a difference, most have written Thompson off , but out off all fringe and bench players, really think he could, and is most likely to step it up this year. Possibly not having the characters around the place off pritchard and pryce could make a differance, think a lot of the team moral, togetherness came from them 2

Your first sentence makes no sense. How can teams not understand where anothers strength is, all you had to do was look at our pack as soon as the squads were settled and it's right, FC have a huge pack, that's where they are going to focus on breaching us. To say teams weren't ready and are going to be more ready for us this year is totally unfounded and illogical.
What happened was we had probably the best pack in SL, we had most of our big hitters for most of the season far more than other teams, that meant we were able to make headway through the forwards more often than not. it's not that teams weren't 'ready', it's just that we had more firepower more often.

What we offered last season was predictable, it's just that the opposition didn't have enough to overcome it.

Head says 4th heart says 1st.

My head thinks that we won't be as lucky with injuries and other teams will be better at dealing with our style of play.

My heart thinks that we'll smash 'em down the middle and we'll score for fun out wide. 20 tries each for Shaul, Fonua and Albert.

I hope teams concentrate on our pack as feel we have some really good power and strike in the outside backs this year. Although a bit loose at times in the last two friendlies, I think we have seen we are going to throw the ball about, last year if our pack couldn't get on top, we didn't have the back and halfs to unlock defences, I feel with that that with our backs this year.

tend to agree with your heart
We just need to keep our left edge more involved as out right side will see a lot more ball with Kelly there.

Hoping and think we will get top 4, where in the top 4 I don't know. We should have the squad to do it, just will depend on injuries and making sure people behave as they should. I personally don't care about the cup this year, the wembley win finally was the greatest thing ever. I want us to kick on in the league and really go for it.
(another cup win would be nice mind you

)

Hopes:
I hope we back up last season with a strong year and a trophy.

Expectations:
I think on paper we have a top5 squad. Top8 should be a bare minimum (baring a catastrophe on the injury front). I think Wigan in particular & Warrington's squads are stronger than ours and I reckon they'll be top2 by a fair distance. I expect us to be fighting it out with Saints & Cas for a playoff spot, and a strong defence of the cup.

Predictions:
Wigan
Warrington
Saints
Hull
Cas
Leeds
Catalans
Wakefield
Salford
Leigh
Hudds
Widnes

Rovers, Toulouse, London & Feath top4 from the Championship.
Rovers vs Hudds as the £1m game. Hudds to stay up.

6th or 7th

Tough division this year . I hope our expectations have not been built up too high ?
A top 6 finish is a must .

Think we'll be top4 but got a nagging feeling we'll still fall short of Old Trafford, but then again I didn't see last year coming at all...my crystal ball is on the blink!

Top 4 and a good cup run. Pretty much the same as my expectations for last season.
Hopefully not lost any of that tremendous team spirit we had last year, although I think Frank played a massive part in that. We have strengthened in the backs but look a bit light in the forwards. Hopefully we can do as well injury wise in 2017 as we did in 2016.

As a few others have mentioned we need the younger players to step up and show they are capable as and when the time comes.

Be nice to win more silverware but as we all know those big games are generally tight affairs that are settled by the odd mistake by a player or an official. You need a good run of luck as well as skill to win trophies.

Hope....league leaders and challenge cup and grand final winners
Expectations....a tough start with a few grind out wins with youth taking part in team selections to save the 1st teamers for the tough games and late on in the season with minimum injuries
Prediction....A roller coaster ride with Hull fc again this season...hang on to your hats

We'll be better equipped in the forwards now and more balanced that we won't be carrying a player for more than half the season who barely did 20 minutes a game in the wrong position far too often.
Nice bloke I'm sure, good for morale off the pitch, no doubt, on the pitch he won't be missed in my personal opinion, did some good things but that was far too infrequent for a marquee player.
BAcks we are stronger and if kelly does his thing we could be scoring a heck of a lot more points than last season which would be bloody fantastic

Last year's season could be described as the Lord Mayors Show. Hope this year is not the Dust Cart!

I think with Frank, most of us expected him to slot into the 2nd row channel and make barnstorming runs, rather than predominantly down the middle.

Whether that was purely Radders tactics to play him in bursts down the middle, or Franks fitness dictating his usage I'm not sure.


Whilst his minutes on the pitch weren't great and I agree we should've got more from a marquee player, his stats say that whilst he was on, he was pretty effective (but unspectacular) at getting us up the field:

270 Carries (Manu 278, Ellis 255, Mini 246)
2,162 Meters (Ellis 1819, Manu 1,804, Mini 1,759)
20 Offloads (Mini 14, Manu 13, Ellis 11)
34 Tackle Busts (Mini 91, Manu 49, Ellis 26)

This is what worries me a little about the bench this year, I'm not sure we've replaced his go forward yet.

That's my worry.

Pritchard made made more carries than Ellis or Mini in much less game time
Made more meters a carry than any forward other than Taylor. More clean breaks than any forward than Mini and our 4th top offloader. And personally I believe he got special attention from teams if for his name if nothing else. Seldom got tackled with less than 3 on him. Baring in mind he was 1 of our top clean breakers and metre makers Houghton will defo miss him.
So if you think he was carried I'd say you was wrong personally. Right player brought in at the wrong time. Stats can be miss leading but some don't lie, particularly forwards stats with regards work done.
He'll defo be missed in the forward's. But kelly as a whole add's more to the team and hope the other forwards can add to their games

As we know stats tell you everything...but let's look at it shall we.
Minichello who hardly got subbed all season made 91 tackle busts to Pritchards 34, even jordan Thompson made almost as many TB and yet made 500+tackles in about the same game time Pritchard had.
Minichello 485, Ellis 577 tackles, Pritchard 335, so about 40% fewer.
Pritchard often came on after 20 25 minutes, sometimes even with less on the clock.
for the amount of time he was on the pitch he put an awful lot of pressure on the other forwards at times and first half of the season he was nowhere near fit.
But to the clean breaks, yeah, when you're coming on after 20-25minutes you're bound to be able to make more clean breaks and make more metres right. I mean, that was his sole purpose pretty much as an impact off the bench player and yet far too often that wasn't the case.
How many games would you say he had a big impact, half a dozen, maybe, some impact no doubt but for the 'top' player at the club his return was way way below par as a whole.
IMHO I think we are better off without him, we have enough big props, we can have more mobile forwards such as a Thompson or whoever that are tackling more, making as many tackle breaks and can do more minutes if need be.
It's not all about bish bash bosh.

Can't believe you've watched the game all year and seen nothing
Not sure what the minichello point is about but you've started comparing thommo to frank. Which is fair in terms of game time and role played within the team

Tackle busts frank did make more
More breaks
More try assists
More offloads
More tries
More carries
Nearly 2.2 metres a carry more
Over 800 more metres and regarding tackles ..Frank never made many because he was avoided like the plague. .something I was always suprised people never picked up on more. He missed 15 all year. Puts him 21st lowest hull player. Only lower were players who only played a couple of games. I remember early catalans game. Only had to make 3 tackles. Next game 7. Tremendous defender for a big man
Our bench is weaker without him without doubt. But there in is the problem..A marquee player shouldn't be a bench player tbf

Simple fact, he wasn't worth his salary, even 10% of it would have been generous.

As pointed..He was top of or near a lot of the main forward stats. Among the highest in all of the league in some. He wasn't what we needed tbh. Not for the players we already had on board. But if you weigh all of it up..The buzz he brought..The off field tightness of the group he obviously helped harness and although on field wasn't what we expected he was still no where remotely as bad as some make out. Not even close. His you tube highlights did him no favours to those who don't know any better imo
I'll always regret not seeing him playing wide as an outright 2nd row for us. But given our squad it couldn't happen. Right player wrong time. Is the right decision to let him go though

Sums it up for me.

Statements like "Simple fact, he wasn't worth his salary, even 10% of it would have been generous" are a bit one-eyed really.

He'll certainly leave a hole in our go forward (as the stats point out), but that hole isn't quite as big as one that should've been left by a marquee player, for various reasons.