1- Saints
2 - Hudds
3 - Wigan
4 - Wire
5 - Leeds
6 - Catalan
7 - Salford
8 - Hull KR
9 - Hull
10 - Wakey
11 - Widnes
12 - Cas
13 - Bradford
14 - London

Hock will probably run well. He was a one man wrecking machine for Widnes at times last year and improved them. Kevin Brown used him well...so can see Chase and Smith working with the same mentality.

As for Morley, the 'good spells' may be 15 mins a game, cant see how he will move them forward much. Hope he doesn't take valuable minutes away from darrell griffin.......

Garry Schofield's (League Express):

1. Wigan
2. Leeds
3. Saints
4. Wire
5. Hudds
6. Salford
7. Hull FC
8 Catalans
9 HKR
10 Widnes
11 Cas
12 Wakey
13 Bradford
14 London

Here goes but I think this season is the most open (hardest to predict) for some time:

1. Giants
2. Saints
3. Wigan
4. Rhinos
5. Wolves
6. Dragons
7. Hull
8. Salford
9. Hull KR
10. Widnes
11. Bulls
12. Cas
13. Wakefield
14. London

Grand final: Giants
Cup Winners: Rhinos
The latter is more in hope than expectation

Just to add fuel to the debate re: Warrington. I have it on good authority that the upper echelons of the club themselves don't expect to be challenging for silverware for at least 2 seasons. That doesn't mean they won't, of course, as evidenced by Wigan in 2010 winning the GF a couple years ahead of the perceived wisdom from inside the club. I think the difference between the two situations could be that Warrington are in a genuine rebuilding phase, whereas Wigan were not. Interesting that many posters still see them as big contenders given their record without Morley and, in particular, Briers which has been generally poor and given the fact that they haven't actually replaced them with anything approaching 'like for like'. I suppose it comes down to whether the players they already have can step up this year without them; something they were unable to do last season. Either way, it will certainly be interesting to see how it pans out.

It's not the year of the wolf?

Oh, and on the Wigan front, I think many seem to be overestimating the losses and underestimating the replacements which is how we like it!

We have 2 or 3 'bolters' this season (Think Charnley from last year or even Tomkins from a few years ago) and although Tomkins is a big loss in himself, Bowen is absolute quality who has done it year in, year out in the NRL. Providing he's up for the challenge I think he'll be a revelation against the much more open defences in SL. We have one of the youngest squads I've seen in a long time though so it all rests on whether the 'experienced heads' can do the necessary. In short, I think the likes of O'Loughlin need to stay fit for the greater part of the season and definitely be around at the business end. Not unlike yourselves and JP, albeit for different reasons.

Haha.

It's my understanding that the last decade has been the 'year' of the wolf!

1 - St Helens
2 - Huddersfield
3 - Wigan
4 - Warrington
5 - Leeds
6 - Catalans
7 - Hull
8 - Salford
9 - Hull KR
10 - Widnes
11 - Bradford
12 - Castleford
13 - Wakefield
14 - London

GF - St Helens
CC - Wigan

1-warringhton
2-wigan
3-saints
4-huddersfield
5-leeds
6-salford
7-catalans
8-hull fc
9-Hull kr
10-widnes
11-castleford
12-bradford
13-wakefield
14-london

GF warringhton
CC saints

1. Wigan
2. St Helens
3. Warrington
4. Leeds
5. Huddersfield
6. Hull
7. Catalans
8. Salford
9. Castleford
10. Hull KR
11. Widnes
12. Bradford
13. Wakefield
14. London

CC- Leeds
GF- St Helens

1. Wigan
2. Huddersfield
3. St Helens
4. Warrington
5. Leeds
6. Catalans
7. Hull FC
8. Salford
9. Widnes
10. Hull KR
11. Castleford
12. Bradford
13. Wakefield
14. London

CC - St Helens
GF - Wigan

Ian Millward's (Sporting Life):

1. Wire
2. Saints
3. Leeds
4. Hudds
5. Pies
6. Catalans
7. HKR
8. Salford
9. Hull FC
10. Bulls
11. Widnes
12. Cas
13. Wakey
14. Broncs

Analysing the predictions to date gives the following composite results:

1. Saints
2. Wigan
3. Wolves
4. Giants
5. Rhinos
6. Dragons
7. Hull
8. Salford
9. Hull KR
10. Cas
11. Widnes
12.Wakefield
13. Bulls
14. London
No single prediction matches the above exactly.

Most people favour the Rhinos to win the cup with Saints to win the Grand Final.

Would be quite something with Leeds having lost their last 6 CC finals and Saints having lost their last 5 GF's.

Wigan
Leeds
St Helens
Warrington
Huddersfield
Catalan
Hull
Salford
Hull KR
Wakefield
Castleford
Widnes
London
Bradford

I might need to revise mine, given Bradford's latest flirtation with the administrator

Don't bother.

Their iconic status as a SL club shall be protected by their landlords (the RFL) no matter what.

It was the "[uformer[/u holding company" which went into administration today anyhow, and not the new holding company... bwahahahahaha.

Don't forget to leave your entry William - several posters in the past have set their personal benchmark against it.

Phuzzy I dont believe a word of that. From what I have heard they are bullish about next season. Smith has openly said that he has been building towards this new team. Moran our chairman has known to back us financially whenever a new player is needed. I think you are way off the mark imo.

Phuzzy when you say the upper echelons who do you mean moran, gatliffe,broomhead, smith?

Nope. Seinor tea lady, retail team manager and a guy who stands at the bar in his local who is pretty old and seems to watch RL if it's on and the landlady isn't wearing anything revealing.

1 Saints-some good signings, decent outside backs, decent halves, World Class Hooker, big pack, need step back up to the big leagues after a year or two fo rebuilding
2 Giants-still hungry, wont place as much importance on finishing top but aren’t experienced enough to manage the season to the degree of other clubs
3 Wire-too good for many teams in the league, will miss Briers in the big games
4 Leeds-great backs, not enough up front, but easily capable of beating anyone, need to manage the season more than others with rotation, especially up front
5 Wigan-will simply try and do what they did last year
6 Catalans- simply the 6th best team in the comp imo, stuck in a little bit of no mans land in quite a bit better than those below, not close enough to those above
7 Cas will start off strong, gets some big wins under their belts and hope to hang on
8 Salford-Will do the opposite of Cas, nobby will do what nobby does.
9 Hull-another season of under achievement, will look one week like they can beat anyone, look like they couldn’t beat a school team the next
10 Hull KR Will define mediocrity. Bang in the middle, too good to go down, not good enough for the 8
11 Bulls- Will stay up may not be anywhere near their best squad, still got some decent players and experience
12 Widnes-looked to be building for the last few years, haven’t added anyone haven’t added anyone game changing this off-season
13 Wakefield- decent squad which will keep in touch, just doesn’t have the depth for me
14 London-not that bad a squad, but simply has not time to get together or gel and will lose early games, possibly denting confidence, possibly getting left behind.

I was very tempted to put Castleford in the top 8 as I thought they'd be dark horses and saw their season going similar to what you describe with a good start and decent chunk of the season in the playoff spots, except I thought they might just slide out of 8 by the end (ended up putting 10th). Kinda wish I'd listed them in the Top 8 now though.