This is the league table based on the last 13 rnds of SL - with each team playing each other once.

I'm not implying anything , just that it makes for interesting reading .
i'm not daft enough to this will inflence any prediction for 2015 league positions.
Some teams finished strongly and have recruited , and some teams have actually lost some key players.
looking at the other predictions , Huddersfield seem universally placed lower than their actual results , Warrington finished strongly and have Ashton Simms & Darryl Clark to add to next years squad .

Irony-o-meter just went off the scale!

A good guess this thread will be as all pre season forecasts are.

Wigan
Warrington
St Helens
Catalans
Huddersfield
Leeds
Salford
Castleford
Hull FC
Hull KR
Wakefield
Widnes

Gone for my club Wigan as top, recruited well with a new style of play next year plus added pace to the pack, half backs and backs. Look better prepared this year than last to cope with injuries.
Wire 2nd as they again have quality if not quantity in recruitment. An all round good squad.
Saints 3rd. Again have recruited well with Burns and Vea. They have lost senior players though Long's returning will be interesting
Gone for Catalans as 4th, with Carney and Dureau as half backs behind their big pack they could well make the top four with improved away form.
Huddersfield 5th will be good again but think they'll slip back a bit.
Leeds 6th They've not recruited well and lost experienced players.
Salford 7th, will do better this year. Kevin Locke could be one of SL's stand out players.
Cas 8th, will slip back IMO. Losing Clark, Huby and Ellis will affect them badly I feel.
Hull FC 9th, Signing Pryce. Sneyd & Manu shows they are recruiting as badly as ever.
Hull KR 10th, They have good signings but have to overcome their own inconsistent form.
Wakefield 11th, Some big forwards brought in but lack quality over all for top 8.
Widnes 12th. Hardly recruited at all and look very vulnerable over a long season.

cant even get hull fc signings right so hardly in a position to predict ours! fyi manu went back home to australia

Do you mean Kirke & Bailey? That's actually a positive

We haven't signed Manu, he's retired.

I made a comment earlier about him being our highest paid player. I don't know the ins and outs but apparantley there was some EBT scheme that he opted into (it's since been done away with). A portion of his salary went into this, but it was never actually paid by the previous owners, so now Pearson has had to settle to the tune of £200,000. That's what I meant.

Read about him being the highest paid player so thought he'd signed. See what you mean, Pearson having to fork that amount out, poor sod!
As a matter of interest what position do you think you'll finish at?

It's a good sign that so many people are getting offended at other people predictions for their clubs because it shows how competitive it should be.

I fancy Wigan, Saints, Warrington, Leeds and Catalans to make up the top 5 positions in some order but the rest could be anything.

I look at Wakey and Widnes and a lot have them down for 11th and 12th place but with a good start momentum can build and they could quite easily get in that top 6-8 places.

7th or 8th is realistic I think. I like our backs and our back row is, imo, second only to Wigan's. Props are capable when they want to be, but they've got to show it alot more often than they did last year. Hooker is a worry. I hope James Cunningham can prove me wrong but I just don't think he's good enough, and Houghton can't be expected to play 80 every week.

Jury is out with the half backs. I was really pleased when we signed Sneyd but his form dipped noticeably at the end of the season. Pryce also, I've always rated him, but what has he got left in the tank? It wouldn't surprise me if the back end of season sees us with Rankin and Harry Tyson Wilson as the half backs. I don't think that's a bad thing either.

The main problem is Radford. I don't think it's a bad squad at all. There's some really talented players there. Put a top class coach in charge of those players and we are a top 6 team and maybe better imo. He may learn a lot from his first year and come back much better, but I'm not holding my breath.

Ah, hello Phuzzy and welcome back.

Tell me, have you decided against further defending your lunatic assertion that Walmsley last season was less of a prop than Flower and Taylor and merely the equal of Crosby and Clubb ????







Do excuse me. It's just that your ridiculously biased nonsensical stance does make me laugh. Since you appear to have decided against arguing your case further in the face of fact proving you to be little more than a biased Wiganer, I figured I'd just seek confirmation that you cannot see beyond the boundaries of Ashton and Billinge ?

In order:

1. Wigan
2. Saints
3. Warrington
4. Leeds
5. Huddersfield
6. Catalans
7. Castleford
8. Widnes
9. Salford
10. Wakefield
11. Hull FC
12. Hull KR

1. St Helens
2. Leeds
3. Warrington
4. Salford
5. Wigan
6. Hull KR
7. Huddesfield
8. Castleford
9. Wakefield
10. Catalan
11. Widnes
12. Hull

A) Radford first coach to be sacked.
B) St.Helens to do the double.
C) St Helens v's Warrington Grand Final.

You really shouldn't be posting if you're under 11 years of age. You've obviously got some anger issues as well



Good Friday was a good barometer of full strength teams going at it and you were hammered at Langtree Park. Wigan also suffered with a massive injury list as did many others throughout the season so your delusional quote of you finishing 8 points clear of everyone fit is just that.

Reality is they were the best two teams in the competition and most likely will be again this year.

It really is quite balanced and hard to predict. A lot of clubs have a wide range of finishing positions.

St Helens have the best squad on paper, but a question mark over their coach.

People are underestimating Catalans who should be much better this year not just because of Carney (if he doesn't self-destruct) but because of the return of Casty as main forward.

Leeds could literally come anywhere between 1st and 10th. Still have the best 1-5 in the league if they can learn how to use them and some forwards (Peacock, Ablett, Cuthbertson) who would get into every other side. But they played terribly for the second half of last season.

Cas have signed some decent players but lost their two most important men from last year. And Luke Gale is rubbish.

Salford can do well if, and it's a big if, Chase can blend with Dobson.

Wigan
St Helens
Catalans
Warrington
Huddersfield
Leeds
Salford
Hull KR
Castleford
Widnes
Wakefield
Hull FC

you want to read some of the stuff she posts on the saints forum. clearly the work of a year 9 or 10 pupil

I'm guessing you have a serious disliking of Hull

That is interesting

Not really, just think too many changes will be both clubs downfall, FC again with widespread changes, theyve done this before and have been poor last few seasons

KR have had plenty of losses and their replacements are of a lesser standard, and they weren't very good last year

It is interesting. Not really Because of the results but the other stuff that went in to them. There is a 7 league point swing between leeds and Cas but only a 36 points difference. Leeds managed to lose 8 games draw one and win only 4 but still had a points difference of -14, which is pretty unbelievable really. Wakefield have a 36 point worse points difference but got 4 points.

Generally this would point to this teams with small numbers + and - had a lot of close games, and there where you don't often find a club has long term better results, so there should be some reversion to the middle, so next year you would expect Leeds to win a few mor home games and Cas and Wakefield to lose a few more. That's not to say they will win or lose more in total, just those small margin games.

EIGHT
Saints
Wigan
Salford
Catalan
Warrington
Huddersfield
Leeds
Hull FC

BOTTOM FOUR
Castleford
Hull KR
Widnes
Wakefield

1. Warrington
2. Wigan
3. St Helens
4. Huddersfield
5. Leeds
6. Catalans
7. Castleford
8. Salford

Bottom 4 from
Hull KR
Widnes
Wakefield
Hull FC

Warrington - I think they will have a good year, made some good signings but for me they have a consistent backroom coaching staff in place. I think some people are placing too much emphasis on new signings rather than the coaches in place.

St Helens - See my point above. I gather Nathan Brown wasn't universally liked by the Saints fans but I think it might take time to get used to Cunningham/Long etc.

Wigan - Will be there or thereabouts, we all know they can play but maintaining their physical approach without losing discipline is their biggest problem.

Huddersfield - Will challenge but how long can they rely on Brough to call the shots?

Leeds - See above (but replace Brough with Sinfield/Peacock etc).

Catalans - Could finish higher if they sorted away form out. Which they won't. Just about unbeatable at home.

Castleford - Won't do as well, Clark is a big loss but I think we have better halfbacks this year, 7th will still be a good achievement. Cannot understand those tipping us to slip by 6/7 places though!

Salford - Will finish in the playoffs but will it be seen as an achievement by the Doc? Will he resist his usual outbursts? And has he put in a place a proper marketing team to **promote** the team or it is just him posting twitter rants again?

The bottom 4 is harder to call.

Wakefield constantly have that fighting spirit and I think will just avoid bottom (once again).

Widnes - Sorry Widnes fans but I have never been convinced by Betts, shown up badly in the big games last year (apart from the Playoff game).

And as for both Hull teams...for me it's one of the greatest mysteries in rugby league why they invest heavily in stadiums, playing squad etc, and then it's as if they have checked their pockets and realised they only have a couple of toffees, a bit of string and a pack of football stickers so thats the coaching budget sorted. I am sure in time Radford and Chester could become good coaches but I feel both would benefit from managing a team in the championship and then working up to a Super League job.

Wakefield might suprise a few this year well coached just see them in 8th

Probably a very fair assessment.

I have nothing against either Hull team btw, I just think they have everything else in place to do much better. Both are well supported teams and the fans deserve much better.

I'm not sure how we have made widespread chances, we have only signed about 5 players (which is pretty standard), we have only one loss from last season's squad and that is Heremia, other than that we are stronger in every department. Halfbacks in particularly are massively better, last season we had Rankin, Horne and Miller at halfs, this season Rankin, Pryce and Sneyd, the later two are big improvements on the 2014 halfbacks.

We also have some very talented young players who are year older will have benefited hugely from playing last year. Our backrow of Minichiello, Ellis and Westerman is as good as any other in SL apart from Wigan.

I certainly think we will improve on our 11th place finish, but not sure we will improve enough to make the top 8 though, with questions marks over the coach (although if we start badly I expect him to go).

I'd be shocked if we finished lower than last year.

I also think Rovers are stronger in most departments except for hooker, but agin have question marks over the coach and the fact they have made massive changes from last year.