Wakefield

Poor Coaching and a lack of dressing room leadership meant Wakefield had very little in the way of a positive culture throughout the playing staff last year. The rot had set in and once matches were lost the confidence in the team became non existent leading to capitulation and collapse whenever they faced adversity. There were one or two bad apples within the group and their influence grew as the season got worse, as they say 'MISERY LOVES A FRIEND!'

Something big had to happen and it did!

Fate decreed that an aging Brian Smith was available, outgoing Coach James Webster showed class an maturity in contacting Smith and making him aware of the challenge at Trinity and he responded.

Those close enough to the club have seen a total transformation of, well, everything at Belle Vue!
Standards and expectations have been raised through the roof by Smith and the players have bought into him and his methods 100%
He has brought in structures off the field that have created order within the camp, players KNOW what's expected of them and the club are providing everything they need in order to deliver it.

The conditioning of the players has moved on massively, gone are the 1980s style beastings, replaced by a carefully structured and expertly informed hybrid of cutting edge sports science and hard work.

Brian Smith has brought a style of play that works and he's tinkered with the team to put players where they need to be to make his team capable of delivering it. It's not sexy, it's no big secret but coupled with the culture, expectations, conditioning and commitment, it works!

England, Anderson, Scruton & Simon will be the front row rotation charged with holding the middle and winning Wakefields fair share of momentum, providing a platform for the halfs and back rowers.

In the back row Wakefield have players who run excellent lines and time their runs perfectly to hit the ball at speed. Anthony Tupou, Kirmond, Ashurst and Molloy will reap the dividends of Smiths new structured play. Arona will be the surprise player of the season though, his power, speed, footwork and offload will be massively evident on the back of the structured work of his pack colleagues.

To make this workable Wakefield needed a clever footballer in the centre of everything and they got Liam Finn (cue the giggles).
Despite being unfashionable, despite being late to bloom Finn is an astute Rugby League player. He may not have blistering pace or a Shaun Johnson sidestep but he is quick between the ears and a yard ahead of his opposition. His decision making is top notch, his kicking game is outstanding and he will steer the team around using a hard earned knowledge of the game.

Finns game will allow Wakefield to see the best of Miller who will be allowed to play off the back of Arona and Tupou's offload game while also sniffing out the breaks between less mobile forwards in the defensive line.

Wakefields backs are big and solid but most importantly, and this is a huge change from last season, they will defend well on the edges! It's a no nonsense three quarter line but they'll trouble opponents with physicality and the structure will have them running at stretched and stressed defences.

Throw in another couple of elements that Wakefield have lacked for a number of years.
Unpredictability and pace or in the case of Tom Johnstone sheer out and out speed.

Ben Jones Bishop will have his best season for years perhaps ever, he's settled in really well and is enjoying being closer to home. He is a natural modern day full back and will chime into Wakefields attacking structures to perfectly compliment the lines our back row will run and the offload games of Arona, Tupou and Ashurst.

The depth of the squad is good and a big improvement on last year with cover in every position but half back.

Wakefield have a long way to come back from just to catch the rest of the potential bottom four teams but they've made significant changes not just to the team on the field but to back room staff, culture, conditioning, training facilities but to trump the lot of them they have a seasoned, experienced and successful Coach, the right man at the right club at the right time.

You can tell all that from 1 friendly against Leeds?

Hull FC

You can never confidently predict that Hull will have a good season, so often we go into the year with great hope only to fail miserably yet again. However something just feels different this year. Its certainly the most confident I've felt since 2007, and I know alot of fans that feel the same.

Firstly, we have recruited well. We have lost a couple of good forwards in Paea and Westerman, but for me the signings of Taylor, Pritchard and Manu cover for that and then some. Lineham will be tough to replace, but I'm happy with Fonua. Tuimavave is a bit of an unknown but has undoubted talent and potential, and Washbrook brings alot of versatility and experience to the squad.

However the players that are coming in aren't the reason why I am looking forward to 2016. Its the ones we already have, namely the youngsters. People will know a bit about the likes of Abdull, Logan and Lancaster already. They may have also seen Turgut, Fash, Downs and Maatongo play. But even beyond them you have Dean, Tyson-Wilson, Osborne, Litten. The list goes on. They are all huge talents, many have represented (in Turgut's case captained) England at youth level, and they are all under 20. Even if this season isn't the one where they all announce themselves, the future is exciting for the club.

I think everyone who doubts Hull's chances will point to the coach as the main reason. I agree. Radford has a huge question mark over him, and frankly he's lucky to still be in the job. However, this is his third year now and he has shown signs of improvement last year. I will give him the benefit of the doubt, but he is imo the main stumbling block on our route to the top 4.

Leeds

Depends if we've grown tired of winning.

Leeds

Now the safety first leadership of Sinfield and Peacock has had its day we're really gonna hand out some punishment.

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Hull KR

If success is performance during the season relative to expectation at its start, then climbing a couple of spots to 8th, would be seen as succe... well, reasonable progress.

We've got a decent spine, though our halfbacks have a reputation for fragility. Touch wood, we shouldn't have so many injuries at prop next year and won't be quite such a soft touch down the middle. We've got some continuity in the squad after a huge turnover of players before and through last season - no big signings, but no really key departures either.
New back-room set up which might or might not help - Jamie Peacock is saying the right things at least.
We're mostly realistic enough to accept that the squad is a bit skinny and the pack, even with everyone available, won't be giving many opponents sleepless night. We are still in the market for a forward, which, even if that doesn't happen, at least means we have budget to fund a loan deal if needed mid-season. We could do with Thornley steering clear of injury and one of Salter or Minns having a breakthrough season too. Oh yeah, and better away form.

Not the most compelling case, I admit - but to quote Peacock 'You don't go from 10th to 1st in one season'.

Even Mother Nature is trying to help the rest of SL by flooding our training ground and making it unusable until February.

As for Wakey, what I saw on Boxing Day only confirmed the obvious, that Brian Smith will have them working harder and more committed than what James Webster did 12 months ago. Whether they'll have enough quality to go with that to try and at least push for the top 8 will only be seen when they play some league fixtures.

Warrington

Because it is always our year?

On a serious note we have a huge squad and plenty of strength at both U19s and U23s to add to that. Gidley will provide the direction and leadership we desperately missed, Hill is still the best prop in SL and we have a young new mobile back row.

Can Smith pull it together though?

Hull Kingston Rovers

Starting from the top, our main strength, our board, has been strengthened further with the addition of Jamie Peacock. He will add some "football knowledge" that was possibly lacking. His presence will hopefully also add professionalism and intensity. He will also be there to share knowledge with our coach, and will hopefully bring more out of him.

On the field, moving Ken Sio from wing to full back will be a big move for us. It will see him have more of the ball, and as one of our better players, that can only be a benefit. It also means we have Dixons searing pace on the wing. Centre looks a weakness in the squad to me, with Thornley set to hold down one place, with the other going to Minns or Salter. It will hardly fill other teams with dread.

Our success (or not) revolves around 6 & 7. IF we keep Kelly and Campese fit all season then we could finish as high as 7th, but that is a big IF. I believe that they are arguably the best duo in the comp.

Our pack will need major improvement on last season, however I am a big fan of Dane Tilse and think he will go well. Add to that Mitch Allgood, who will be like a new signing, and Rob Mulhern, who I think could be a revelation this season, we are well stocked on props. Its the back row where we are light, and one signing would give us much better depth. we will benefit from having Maurice Blair consistently playing there, as he showed last year that left second row is by far his best position.

All being well, I think 7th is realistic, anything else will be a bonus. Same home form, and a few more away wins and I think most fans will be happy.

You argue a good case.



What would be considered a successful season for Wakey, then? I would have thought top half of the table?

Well, if been competitive for the first twenty three games, not finishing bottom & finishing in the top three of the middle eights is classed as success, I’ll go with the O.P’s eulogy.

But if I was a Leeds fan I’d expect no less than winning the WCC, followed by the domestic treble & Danny McGuire winning SPOTY.

Pfft. We laugh in the face of God and his pathetic attempts to derail our season. Who are ya?! Who are ya?!

For me success would be getting off th bottom of the table as I alluded to in the opening post.

A top 8 finish would be an amazing turnaround in one season but I'd just be happy not to be embarrassed by poor performances

Leeds:

It's easy to look at leeds and say that they've lost 3 legends and won the treble last season, so all down hill from here on in. However Leeds still have one of the best backlines in super league, creative spark in the middle of the pitch combining experience (mcguire, burrow) with youth (sutcliffe, ward, lilley) and of course again a strong pack which in actual fact is more youthful than in previous seasons. .

Let's not forget as well, that at the end of last season leeds managed to complete the hardest lap of the treble with their first choice hooker, sutcliffe and ward out injured, all of whom had excellent seasons and were key to leeds fantastic early season form.

Then we factor in that going into this season leeds had only 3 players on international duty at the end of last season, which means the majority of the squad have had chance to refresh themselves and have a thorough pre-season.

In terms of leeds competition, obviously wigan have tomkins back who should improve them, and saints should be stronger for Cunningham getting his first ever season as head coach done. Huddersfield, warrington et al will all be in around the action, but no one screams out as especially superior to leeds.

Leeds have the chance of 4 trophies next season (WCC, CC, SL, LLS) They won't win the treble but they have a good chance of winning one of the those trophies this season and will be in the mix at the end of the season.

The difficulty for Leeds fans now might not so much be convincing others that you'll be strong, more that it shouldn't just be taken for granted and is worthy of excitement and interest. Like Wigan in the late 1980s and early 1990s - a great team whose fantastic achievements started to feel routine after a while. In football too, with Liverpool when I was a kid and then Ferguson's Manchester United. The level of success they had weirdly diminished its impact. In the longer term, it starts to look remarkable again, but that requires a period of being a bit rubbish.
So, yeah, to have been truly great Leeds need to start losing more frequently. Unfortunately for Leeds fans, I see no prospect of that in 2016, dooming you to another season of the same old stuff, meandering to a familiar conclusion at Old Trafford.

Saints might stand a chance of top four place if they ignore Cunningham's tactics of three drives and a rubbish kick.

Think we might find a big improvement in 4 drives then a moderate kick. Hopefully Cunningham will have some game plans this season.

Widnes - We've already been written-off by most as having no-chance of even making the top 8.
We've strengthened the back-line and the second row, still a bit light at prop and the overall squad is a bit small for my liking.
But if we don't have the injuries we had last season and can keep our play makers on the pitch for the majority of the season then we may surprise a few and could finish anywhere up to 6th.

You definitely won't finish in the top 8 never mind finishing as high as 6th
See you in the middle 8's

Wigan

We're finally going in to a season as strong if not stronger then the previous season. We've lost Burgess who we'd like in the squad in an ideal world but will hopefully have a fully fit and motivated Josh Charnley to take his place. When at his best he's superb as a try scoring record of approx 174 try's in 172 games tells you. Other then Burgess we've only lost squad players.

We've got Sam Tomkins back! People talk about his record in Australia as though he failed. He had one very good year and one year with a knee injury that has been mis-diagnosed. He'll be a different player to the one which left but no less effective in overall results imo and we'll have one of the very best players in the league at the back for us.

The main plus for us though imo is that we're a year older. We've lost two finals on the trot but we've been in them (plus the one we won) and young lads have gained huge experience in big games. We've also got lads like Bateman and Williams who've gained international experience. The squads average age is very young with Joel Tomkins at 28 the second oldest but in terms of big game experience we're getting it all the time.

We'll go close again.

I'll let Saddened talk you through our chances of success

St Helens:

Only saving grace is that every other team looks weaker in my opinion with the exception of Wigan if Tomkins can hit the floor running once he is fit. Our pack is the best in the league by a long way now that JP and Captain Charisma have retired but when you have 2 halfbacks who are utterly clueless this counts for nothing. I guess it all depends on how Laurel & Hardy get on this year

Regards

King James

Wakefield:

After last year, I'm just hoping that we'll be competitive every week. Signs are promising against a strong Leeds squad but a very long way to go.

P.S

I'm expecting one of the big four to do a Chelsea.

It amazes me that SOME Saints fans still think their pack is miles better than the rest of the league. Fair enough with the idea it's the best but IF it is, it isn't by much and certainly not anywhere near as much over the other teams as they like to think.

I'd add to that what struck me watching the Season Review on Wigan TV: there isn't a better finisher in SL than Dom Manfredi. And he and Charnley will surely vastly benefit from Sam Tomkins' return.