Off season excitement : Sun Nov 07, 2021 10:21 pm  

Every single year around this time I start to get excited again. The end of last season seems a lifetime ago however the boxing day friendly at the bulls seems a lifetime away (unsure if this is happening this year but just generalising).

I think this off season the media team at the Panthers are doing a fantastic job of keeping the fans engaged and generally drumming up some positive press for the neutrals/other fans along the way - which can’t hurt!

We seem to be adding some real quality to our squad this year.

So my question is, how far do people think we can go this year?

Another cup run? 3rd place or higher?

I’ll go first:

Quarters of the Challenge cup
2nd in the league

Re: Off season excitement : Sun Nov 07, 2021 11:20 pm  

Out of the cup in the 1st round. Win the league.

Re: Off season excitement : Sun Nov 07, 2021 11:41 pm  

Hudd-Shay wrote:

Out of the cup in the 1st round. Win the league.

I'd settle for that.But we have in theory our strongest squad for years and some quality beyond whoever is in the starting 13. The key for me is avoiding the banana skins such as losing away to teams which should hope to beat as that cost us last season and hope we can beat Fev and Leigh at home and hope they slip up somewhere down the road. Reasons to be cheerful. Of course we await the wisdom of The Real Charlie Caroli for a real assessment of our prospect! UTF

Re: Off season excitement : Mon Nov 08, 2021 7:59 am  

I don think fev will be anything like last year.

1st leigh
2nd fax (both in final 50/50)
3rd Newacastle
4th Fev
5th York
6th Widnes

Re: Off season excitement : Mon Nov 08, 2021 8:48 am  

An absolute must is to be up and running from game one. Fax seem to have got into the habit of slow starts recently. Who remembers Richard Marshalls quite ridiculous statement regarding working our way into the season? By the time we'd done that any hope of topping the division was gone. Similarly this last season we were out of the cup at the 1st hurdle and had the horrendous display at Oldham. We must get off to a good start, especially in the league and build momentum and confidence from the off. Up The Fax!

Re: Off season excitement : Mon Nov 08, 2021 10:52 am  

Im not too fussed about the cup it is what it is. Get a nice draw and a home game against a big SL team would be decent but as for the league Im not sre we are quite there squad wise to challenge Fev for top but Im hopeful we can get 2nd and have a chance of winning a one off game against them. For me less than 4th would be a disappointment. As it is I see the top 4 as Fev, Fax, Bradford, Leigh in that order. The top half of the league is so strong though I wouldn't be surprise to be way off with that as Newcastle and Batley will likely have a say and York won't be as bad again. We have put ourselves in a position this year to be that team that has a massive fail of a season so I think the pressure is on us a bit. The other team in that position for me will be Leigh they have the potential to implode normally but with the struggles they are having to bring players in it could be a disappointing season for their fans.

Re: Off season excitement : Mon Nov 08, 2021 2:48 pm  

I think we should be very optimistic for the new season. I thought last season squad wise we were third behind Toulouse and fev. I know other sides last season had bigger budgets for players but other then the 2 sides mentioned I thought we should be the best of the rest and credit where it is due to simon and the players for achieving that. I did not see last season as a over achievement thou so considering the investment on the playing front for next season I
think we should be looking to challenge for top spot and the gap between ourselves and fev should be considerably closed to the point that we are a big a threat as anyone for promotion. As for the 2 cups the challenge cup is a lottery as to how far we could go but winning it should be beyond our reach right now. As for the 1895 cup we should be 1 of the favorites for it. The pressure is on simon and the players from word go to deliver.

Re: Off season excitement : Tue Nov 09, 2021 10:47 pm  

Like most on here I'm delighted, and probably a bit surprised about the quality of squad bring assembled for next season. I've been a big supporter of Grix as coach, but can see next season being a completely different challenge for him both because of the massively increased expectation levels that come with much better squad, and the challenge of getting the best out of that squad, at the same time keeping the large numbers not playing onside and ready to take their place when needed. Last year team selection for the majority of the season probably took him about 5 mins each week due to the low numbers we were running with - its going to be a bit more of a challenge this year.

Re: Off season excitement : Wed Nov 10, 2021 4:27 pm  

Leigh top and Fax, Fev and Newcastle battling it out for 2nd. We have improved our squad and have the depth , which we didn't have last season.
Charlie knows

Re: Off season excitement : Wed Nov 10, 2021 4:32 pm  

Without having seen what amounts to as close as it gets to a completely new side here’s my two penneth.
Much improved in the backs, halves and at 9.
The pack has triple the number of players to pick from so unless we set a new world record for injuries being short on numbers or being forced to play players who are busted shouldn’t be a problem.
Several of the pack are similar in strength and for the sake of a yardstick I will rate them at a 7/8.
In no particular order a combination of competion for places, determination, ability and how each of them respond to the challenge and settle into a new environment of club, coaching and shear luck will determine who is a 7 and who is a 8.
I am led to believe there are still a couple more to come in and if both or even just one were a 8+/9 then that would be off season excitement and it really could be game on next season.