After our demise in 2016 into the middle 8's competition some SL clubs fans took great joy in rubbing our noses in it

So without apologising to the team who's fans say that it's always their year

Well 2017 certainly is Your year....that you will be playing clubs from the Championship

They need to stop thinking they'll get through that competition easily, that attitude could slip them up.

Widnes are in decent form, Leigh know what that competition is all about and Catalans have a new coach. Regardless of opposition if you aren't in good form it's not easy to get out of that rut. For all our flaws last year our professional attitude towards finding ourselves in the Middle 8's was very good. If Warrington don't take a similar approach and just assume they'll coast through they could find themselves scrambling to avoid the MPG.

lets be honest Segeyaro saved our season and maybe even our super league status

Perhaps, but who cares? I doubt Warrington will be saying the same thing about Hiku come the end of the season

Although positions likely to change, here's what Warrington are looking at ATM in the middle 8's

Home - Widnes, Leigh, London, Toulouse
Away - Catalans, HKR, Featherstone

Widnes in 11th

Home - HKR, Leigh, Featherstone
Away - Catalans, Warrington, London, Toulouse

Warrington could do with making sure they don't drop to 11th.


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Again likely to change (possibly this afternoon) but at present Leeds Top 8 fixtures would be

Home - Hull, Salford, Saints, Hudds
Away - Cas, Wakey, Wigan

Widnes ran Wigan close today and have looked a much better side of late, add that with them and Leigh knowing middle 8s was coming weeks ago and being able to plan they wont be easy beats. Hull KR will be at least as tough as leigh were last year too.

Warrington will have to be much better if they are to survive the MPG.

I always thought Hull KR would easily come back up. Not so sure now. But of the bottom four, I think Catalans might be the ones most at risk, if they end up in there.

Again granted positions could still change but this is what Catalans are potentially facing if they stay in 9th.

Home - Warrington, Widnes, HKR, Featherstone
Away - Leigh, London, Toulouse

If they can return to their reliable home form they should be ok. Toulouse away would be interesting as it wouldn't provide the usual travel issues for them.

Yeah, Catalans until the last 20 minutes yesterday remind me of Salford last season. There's also at least 3 teams at the top of the Championship in good form coming into the 8s, I can see at least 1 SL side getting relegated. I'd love to see Toulouse and KR come up, but Toulouse are limping into the 8s by the looks of it.

The middle 8's will be very tough this year,at present there seems to be sides that are improving each week despite being consigned to not being able to get out of the bottom 4

Sides at the top of the Championship look like they will be tough to beat when they play at home

Warrington and Catalan urgently need to find some form and good performances sharpish

Limping out, more like. Lots of injured players to come back but will it be in time?

Whilst I don't think London and Featherstone have enough to gain promotion, the experience of being in the Middle 8's last year will only help them. London beat Salford away last and were probably our trickiest Championship opponent. So whilst as I said they might not have enough to threaten promotion they could come up with a surprise win over a SL team that costs that side their SL place.

both middle and super 8's look really good this year. why they want to change things I don't know

Agreed.

The only thing that needs tweaking for me is how you deal with magic weekend and the 3 games in a week which are hurting the quality of games in april/may. Would also be quite happy to see the cup final return to a may/june date.

yes I agree with all that.

Some people I think are just obsessed with changing formats and thinking it'd be better. Every team has stuff to aim for right now.

First past the post and 1up 1 down P/R? Would be boring right now as Cas have the LLS wrapped up already and it'd just be between Widnes & Leigh for bottom with everyone inbetween going through the motions. 8 team playoff would have people fuming that Wigan and Saints could roll up playoff time from 6th & 7th and challenge. People suggest a 5 team playoff but that would make the playoffs longer in an already too long season.

People complain that 7th and 8th don't stand a chance at the start of the 8's, but that's not really a flaw because you aren't, or at least shouldn't, have a format that gives teams placed there a chance with so little of the season left.

If the bottom 4 stay the same then of the 13 teams we've had in SL since the 8 format was introduced then 9 teams will have been in the Middle 8's and of the ones to avoid it, Hull, Cas and Wigan have been close to slipping in with a few weeks to go.

To provoke a bit of meaningful debate on here who do you all think will be in the Million pound game and which sides will be in SL next season?

I'll go for a Leigh v Hull KR decider and that no sides will be promoted from the Championship

I think Leigh, wire and Widnes could all be in trouble

Really not sure yet until fixtures are decided. Think Leigh have done ok this season and Jukes has moved them on a bit from Rowley's thuggish team but after Derek Beaumont's reaction and defence of Acton's stupid and reckless action yesterday I wouldn't miss that guy in SL.

After watching them yesterday, its Wire HKR, Wire are in some proper poo, everybody else looks to have some kind of enigma card to play that may or may not get them through, Wire just haven't got off the bus at all, the doors are stuck and its driving around in circles.

Gonna be tight I reckon. I think HKR might get promoted without recourse to the MPG leaving the two SL sides who've struggled most to score points, wire and widnes, to fight it out. And while smith's a good coach when his team's confident, he's very much been found out when they're not. Whereas Betts would probably be lost at the top end of the table but would be be very much in his element in the MPG. So I'll say HKR up, wire down.

Can't sell tickets to games you don't know are happening. Definitely can't sell corporate.

Also, as soon as next year we could be in a position where a semi-pro team need to organise 2 trips to france and a trip to Canada in 7 weeks with a weeks notice (The opposite side of that is that the likes of Toronto, les Catalans and Toulouse need to book up to 4 trips to England and up to 4 trips home within 7 weeks with a weeks notice)

Leigh are very bad, Widnes look better and Wire are better than those two and Les Catalans are tough to beat at home and are better than Leigh/Widnes and the lower division sides.

Hull KR are worse than they were last year and arent as dominant as Leigh were. My prediction no lower league side beats an SL side, Leigh v Hull KR in the MPG.

I wouldn't say Leigh are very bad, yes they occupy bottom spot but it's not like they're taking beatings. They also have experience of the Middle 8's. That's the key thing for me, Warrington and Catalans on paper should be fine, but it's all about how they approach it.

Also depends what the opening few weeks fixtures are, an early loss could send panic into teams. We were perhaps fortunate that we'd already qualified before facing two tricky games away to Hudds (which is always a dodgy fixture for us lately) and then Leigh. For example is Catalans and Warrington met first week, the loser might start getting very nervous and have depleted confidence.

Does anyone know when the structure for 2018 will be announced? Leeds have said season tickets will go on sale in August, surely we need to know what we're getting for our money?