Not saying your predictions are wrong because 6-9 are fairly well matched and Hull could well end up 9th (I don't think we will but it's possible). However I can't agree with the lack of depth comment. If anything our first 17 is weaker than last year, but we have a good deep squad. Our youth players in particular are the best we have had for a long time.

[uTop 2[/u

1/2. [iSaints [/i- Pack now looks strongest in league, and with a kicking general at half-back, that should compensate for any weaknesses in 3/4.

1/2. [iWarrington[/i - still a very strong side with talent all over the park

[uThen...[/u

3/4/5. [iLeeds[/i - steady as she goes, but will the extra year's experience for the young lads compensate for the extra year's mileage for the veterans ?

3/4/5. [iWigan[/i - A Tomkins-less Wigan will be a much less threatening proposition.

3/4/5.[i Huddersfield [/i- No worse than last year, but can they repeat that consistent form two years running ?

[uThen...[/u

6/7 [iCatalans[/i - always a threat at home, less of a threat away

6/7 [iHull[/i - still the sleeping giant

[uThen...[/u

8/9/10/11 [iSalford[/i - I would be amazed if they made the top 8, despite the hype. Not at all impressed by the squad, with a lot of last-paycheque type players. Would not surprise me at all to see them hovering in the bottom 3

8/9/10/11 [iHull KR [/i- probably 8th, but as usual will be inconsistent, with the ability to knock over Saints, but then losing to Cas.

8/9/10/11 [iCastleford[/i - speaking of Cas, they'll do what they do, which is basically be better than the very worst, but ultimately provide a fairly easy 2 points for all the sides in the top half of the table

8/9/10/11 [iBradford[/i - The dark horse of the bottom half. I have no real feel for how they'll go. Could be ok, could be terrible. Certainly in this lower group of clubs scrapping it out for the 8th place.

[uBottom...[/u

12/13/14 [iWakey[/i - should have enough to stay ahead of the bottom 2, but will spend much of the season looking over their shoulder at relegation

12/13/14 [iWidnes[/i - Must be gutted that 2 clubs will go down, but I think this is the year Widnes's SL sojourn will come to an end

12/13/14 [iLondon[/i - Absolute nailed on dead-set certainties to finish bottom. I'd love this to not be the case. I'd love their team of not-very-good-locals and never-made-it-to-NRL-antipodeans to upset enough apple carts to stay up, but with the utter chaos at the club, I think they've been given just enough sticking plaster to limp through this season before oblivion.

I think Saints fans are going over the top with this best pack in the league comments? I just don't see how it is when it's basically the same team as last year add Amor Masoe and lagfranchi none of those are real world class forwards. But I suppose opinions vary?

Going to be a very interesting league. Teams at the bottom are going to be fighting for their lives. I think Londons biggest problem isn't their lack of quality but they have a lot of loan players. It's very hard to get the "backs to the wall mentality" when players know they are going back to their parent club. But I have this sneaky feeling they may stick two fingers up at everyone and survive lol

1. Saints
2. Wire
3. Leeds
4. Wigan
5. Giants
6. Salford
7. Catalans
8. Rovers
9. Hull (they are a team to watch this year. They could finish as high as 6th, but could get dragged into the relegation fight. The 3 most important people in a team (coach and the two half backs) are all rookies.
10. Bradford
11. Cas
12. Widnes (they need to be more consistent. They can't have their handful if "embarrassments" like last two seasons as they might not be able to make up for it against the smaller teams who are fighting for their lives"
13. Wakefield
14. London

Cc winners - Giants
GF -Saints V Wire - Wire win

Last year we beat 4 of the top 8 and drew with Catalan while failing to beat London, losing 2 games against Wakey and also losing to Salford.... Apart from that very accurate.

Think saints look stronger than last year, but will still be a little off the pace from Leeds Wigan and wire, may leap frog huddersfield, but I can also quite easily see them bombing and replacing Brown halfway through season. Think brown us a contender for first sacking of 2014 if they mis fire.

Wigan without Tomkins, Richards and Mossop, surely they can be written off as not even top 4

As everyone did last year write Wigan off at your peril.

Writing hem off top 4 is ludicrous! Yes they have lost Tomkins but ate still a very good team. Don't forget Tomkins missed a large part of last year. Bowen could be an excellent signing and if Bateman stays injury free will be a star. Think Harrison Hanson will be a big miss for them and is Salfords best signing after Chase.

It's looking increasingly likely that Horne and Rankin will be first choice halves this year.

Oh go on write us off for top 4, it worked last year

Are you a schizophrenic?

Roby is one of the very few genuinely world class players left in the league ...

I think first and foremost, watching saints week in week out, the most exciting thing is we've signed players who will fill the rolls we were obviously missing. You may say Amor isn't a world class prop, but he precisely the type of grafter we've needed (it was lms last year, but that role doesn't suit his game).

It also helps we generally showed up well in the World Cup - if Masoe can replicate his performance against New Zealand even once this season the fans will love him. Soliola also showed up really well, and seems a bit of the forgotten man of st.helens with opposition (and saints fans at times) underestimating what he's capable of.

Coupled with so great promising talent pushing through (meaning any poor performances like lms at the start of last year) doesn't need to be tolerated.

We might be missing a peacock who can stand above all others in the pack, but as a unit were as strong as they come. Whose pack would you class as better?

If Salford mis-fire at the start of the season, it wouldn't suprise me to see Nobby in the queue at his local jobcentre before the late Spring Bank Holiday - the good Doctor doesn't strike me as being a patient man!

Catalans team: Escaré, Vaccari, Cardace, Ahlalou, Oldfield, Barthau, Dureau, Bousquet, J. Guasch, Springer, Baile, Garcia, Baitieri
Substitutes : Simon, Margalet, Robin, Miloudi, Maria, Scimone

11 of the 19 don't have a squad number for the coming season.

Missing players: Webb, Pryce, Bosc, Mounis, Elima, Taia, Anderson, Fakir, Millard, Pala, Henderson, Pomeroy, Lima, Pelissier, Whitehead, Paea, Duport

Did you watch the world cup? I would take Masoe at HKR any day of the week. The man is a wrecking ball!!!

Did you watch the world cup? I would take Masoe at HKR any day of the week. The man is a wrecking ball!!!

Wow I know we have some harsh critics out there but bottom 3, not sure where that one comes from but if we do I'll quite happily let you take a dump in my shoes.

Best go and tell the doctor his investment so far equates to a basement battle. WTF are you on ?

.

I'd like to think that if Wakefield can finally get their four overseas players in Anderson, Godinet, Ryan and hopefully Siejka before the start of Super League (Visas!

) and quickly develop a good starting 17 then we'll not be in the bottom 2 by the end.

If Salford stay clear of injuries they'll definitely be in the top 8 but hopefully they will have a shock loss to Wakey at the start!

My dear chap, I have no desire to dump in your shoes, or in any item of your clothing, for that matter. Just calling it like I see it. I think Koukash has spent what he can on what he's been able to find, but I fear the total won't be the sum of its parts. Now don't think I'm some gratuitous Salford knocker. I'd love Salford to be successful, get big crowds and make some serious inroads into Manchester for RL. But from a neutral's perspective, taking your squad :


1 Jake Mullaney - FB - wouldn't be the first Aussie to come to Salford for a holiday, but let's reserve judgement - could be good.

2 Danny Williams - WG - meh

3 Martin Gleeson (vc) - CE - used to be a big fan when at Saints, but a total headcase off the field, and has largely ed away his talent, which is a shame. Waste of a shirt in most games.

4 Junior Sa'u - CE - Not quite made it antipodean, no better really than the sort of fringe islander London traditionally sign.

5 Francis Meli - WG - Too old and lazy now. But at least you won't have to experience his habit of making colossal feckups in Finals.

6 Rangi Chase - SO - on his day, brilliant with ball in hand. A terrible team player. Another off-field headcase. Trouble with a capital T.

7 Tim Smith - SH - Clever player, but another who has just failed to settle at a club or show consistent form. Don't see why Salford should be any different.

8 Adrian Morley (c) - PR - Great career. But it's over.

9 Tommy Lee - HK - poor hooker, already failed at several clubs

10 Lama Tasi - PR - who ?

11 Tony Puletua - SR - Big Tony was a star for Saints early on, but by last season, the ballboys were faster than him when jogging backwards, and his workrate makes the Greeks look like Stakhanovites.

12 Gareth Hock - SR - devastating on the field, but also sadly off it. Nutjob. Will lose more games with penalties than he wins with good play, and will miss plenty for disciplinary problems.

13 Steve Rapira - PR - meh

14 Théo Fages - SH - I thought last year the hype around this lad was entirely manufactured. He's ok. He's not great.

15 Darrell Griffin - PR - When your pack enters the field, do they get free pensioner mobility scooters ?

16 Andrew Dixon - SR - from a club which produces an endless supply of solid, unspectacular, unthreatening second-rows (Saints), comes one of the least impressive.

17 Shannan McPherson - PR - Hooray, a prop under 30. Solid, unspectacular.

18 Harrison Hansen - SR - Solid, unspectacular. Do I detect a theme ?

19 Matty Ashurst - SR - see Dixon....


I stopped there. I know there are others who will get a game when either your headcases are suspended for on-off-field disciplinary cases, or your old fellers in the pack are injured. But let's face it, none of them are names to cause the crowds to start shivering with excitement.

Should be good enough to turn over London and Widnes with no problems. Decent matches against Wakey, Cas etc. I predict a few thumpings against the top 6 sides. Sadly.

I'm just gutted we don't have scouts/ coaches with your knowledge and expertise! Maybe if we did we would win the league!? You must be a top coach from the nrl or somthing?? Every club need to sign people like you (experts) the doc needs to employ you and we will be sorted! What does noble know about signing players? He's never won anything has he! It's not like in his last job he took a team from South Wales who were only in there second year in Superleague and got them into the top six! Noble Hasn't got a clue who to sign or what team to pick, we might as well get rid now and get you signed! Then maybe we'll finish just above the relagation zone???

Funny how you don't say that to those predicting good things for Salford. Is no one allowed to say bad things about Salford?

For the record, I think he was overstating his opinion to make the point, but what do you disagree with? His points on puletua are pretty much spot on

As for noble he also signed a team that caused the club to go bust ... So there's an element of how well did he do given the resources available ... His job before at Wigan he hardly lit the world on fire ... But that's being pinickity and just showing there's another point of view to those held in Salford ...

He took wigan from the relegation zone one year to one game away from the grand final the next! Not bad that. I'm not saying noble didn't spend with the crusaders! I said he got the club to the six in there second year in Superleague which is pretty dam good IMO. He didn't bankrupt the crusaders the people incharge did. People can say what they like about Salford on here, I can reply how I like on here as well.

St Helens 2014

1.Jonny Lomax.. a legend to the Saints fans only a bit like theo at Salford more the fans wanting him to be great rather than actually being great.

2.Tom Makinson.. hardly an Antony Sullivan nothing great imo more down to the quality of super league lowering being the reason of him doing anything in games.

3. Jordan Turner.. Average player was at Salford was at Hull still is at saints wont be ripping any trees up.

4. Josh Jones.. Meh

5. Adam Swift.. Meh

6. Lance Hohaia.. WAS a decent WORLD CLASS player 5 years ago now he's nothing more than an average fullback playing stand off, saints fans slagged him off something rotten last year what's going to be the difference this year?

7. Luke Walsh.. supposedly a good player according to the expert saints fans, fact is I've never heard of him being spoken of in high regard is Australia if he was that great you'd have countless NRL clubs cuing up to land him fact is there wasn't.

8.Mose Masoe.. Big lad Could be a good player don't know yet though.

9. James Roby.. good attacking hooker probably the one world class player saints have.

10.. Louie McCarthy-Scar..oh cant be bothered.. just an average forward no better than any other forward in SL.

11.Sia Soliola.. had an ok world cup got dominated against England Knights at aj bell in samoa's warm up game, not exactly Simon Mannering quality anymore.

12. Jon Wilkin.. Been there (not there anymore) passed it

13. Willie Manu.. another pacific Islander type player similar to what Hull FC would sign.

14. Anthony Laffranchi.. another NRL player who wanted one last payday so headed for SL.

15. Mark Flannigan.. meh

16. Kyle Amor.. the experience this guy brings is just what St Helens need I mean all those big matches grand finals Challenge cup finals what a world beater that guy is.

See its easy to pull a team apart and give a supposed expert view into how good or bad certain players are going to be.