Re: 2025 league predictions : Thu Jan 02, 2025 8:57 am  

We won't finish top 6, in fact we won't even trouble it, 8th at best IMO.

To be honest I'll be delighted if we just improve, start moving on the right direction.

If we can get 2/3 players from the current crop of youngsters to be good SL players then we could be fighting for 6th in 2026.

Re: 2025 league predictions : Thu Jan 02, 2025 9:28 am  

Theeaststander1 wrote:

genuine question

do you think your squad is above 6 other teams including the likes of leigh salford leeds ?

i'd say at a push 7th if abdull plays 100% and plays week in week out, hes the best 7 in SL when he's firing no disputing it

I think best we can realistically hope for is top of the bottom 4 clubs, however big question marks over leeds and salford for me, either of who could go OK but also tank.

The other big unknown is injuries. If everyone has their first choice 17 available every week then I'd say wigan to finish top, with rovers and catalans fighting for 2nd place, wire, saints and leigh 4th to 6th, leeds and salford 7th and 8th with us, cas, hudds and wakey 9th to 12th, however most teams have thin squads so injuries will play a massive part in where you finish.

Anyone confident of us finishing 8th or higher is deluding themselves IMO. We have a new coach, plenty of mid 30's players and some with poor injury records. If we finished 8th and were consistent all season I'd say this squad has probably over delivered

Re: 2025 league predictions : Thu Jan 02, 2025 9:54 am  

I must be deluded then
Apart from Wigan this current super league is bang average

Re: 2025 league predictions : Thu Jan 02, 2025 10:03 am  

It is nice to see some people have confidence in the squad and that a 6th place finish is achievable, but for me we would be banking on a few sides better than us to have a bad year which does feel pretty unlikely.

There has been emphasis on the next three years, Mylers and Cartwrights contracts expire in 2027 along with key players such as Asiata and Abdull, and till then the owners won't be taking a penny out of the club. The blueprint they are working towards seems like

2025 Season - Be competitive again, get fans back onside and give us something to build on. 8-9th place will be seen as progress.

2026 Season - Challenging for top 6 will be seen as an expectation rather than ambition. 5-6th place finish would be the target.

2027 Season - Consolidating ourselves as a top 6 club whilst pushing for a top 4 finish. 6th place would be the minimum, 4th place or above would be the aim.

Obviously only a plan, we could reach the end goal quicker or of course not at all, but its nice to see after several years of negativity that there is something to look forward to.

Re: 2025 league predictions : Thu Jan 02, 2025 10:36 am  

Hullfc-white wrote:

I must be deluded then
Apart from Wigan this current super league is bang average

It isn't the standard it once was, but go from 11th andc3 wins to top 6, is very unlikely to happen.

Our recruitment has been about as good as it could be, b
had we go Lam, Whitehead and another overseas player instead of Seizer, we would have been a different prospect.

Unfortunately it's been hard to recruit, but think Myler has done as good a job as he could do.

I just can't see this squad finishing higher than 6 other teams as it stands.

Re: 2025 league predictions : Thu Jan 02, 2025 11:32 am  

HU8HFC wrote:

It is nice to see some people have confidence in the squad and that a 6th place finish is achievable, but for me we would be banking on a few sides better than us to have a bad year which does feel pretty unlikely.

There has been emphasis on the next three years, Mylers and Cartwrights contracts expire in 2027 along with key players such as Asiata and Abdull, and till then the owners won't be taking a penny out of the club. The blueprint they are working towards seems like

2025 Season - Be competitive again, get fans back onside and give us something to build on. 8-9th place will be seen as progress.

2026 Season - Challenging for top 6 will be seen as an expectation rather than ambition. 5-6th place finish would be the target.

2027 Season - Consolidating ourselves as a top 6 club whilst pushing for a top 4 finish. 6th place would be the minimum, 4th place or above would be the aim.

Obviously only a plan, we could reach the end goal quicker or of course not at all, but its nice to see after several years of negativity that there is something to look forward to.

This is my expectation too.

Re: 2025 league predictions : Thu Jan 02, 2025 11:34 am  

I'd be reasonably happy with 8th place, no hammerings, winning the majority of home games, beating a SL team in the Cup, maybe even winning a game in September (miracles do happen).

Re: 2025 league predictions : Thu Jan 02, 2025 11:35 am  

ComeOnYouUll wrote:

I'd be reasonably happy with 8th place, no hammerings, winning the majority of home games, beating a SL team in the Cup, maybe even winning a game in September (miracles do happen).

Realistic until the September wish

[Chris71]

Re: 2025 league predictions : Thu Jan 02, 2025 1:37 pm  

Jake the Peg wrote:

I think best we can realistically hope for is top of the bottom 4 clubs, however big question marks over leeds and salford for me, either of who could go OK but also tank.

The other big unknown is injuries. If everyone has their first choice 17 available every week then I'd say wigan to finish top, with rovers and catalans fighting for 2nd place, wire, saints and leigh 4th to 6th, leeds and salford 7th and 8th with us, cas, hudds and wakey 9th to 12th, however most teams have thin squads so injuries will play a massive part in where you finish.

Anyone confident of us finishing 8th or higher is deluding themselves IMO. We have a new coach, plenty of mid 30's players and some with poor injury records. If we finished 8th and were consistent all season I'd say this squad has probably over delivered

Think Wigan will remain the team that will top the league, then places 2 to 4 likely to be fought out between KR, Wire or Catalan. St's not sure on but think it could be another disappointing season for them as feel Wellens could be another Cunningham. Leigh have recruited well and will be up in the mix for a top 6 spot.
Not convinced that even with Brad Arthur at the helm Leeds will be that much improved and Salford have to have question marks due to their financial situation and having to reduce their spend on players by a 3rd.
Cas for me have question marks with McGuire as a head coach for the first time, it could go well or be a struggle.
The bottom 2 for me is likely to be Wakey and Huddersfield and think it could well be Huddersfield that end up bottom due again in part to Robinson being new to the Head Coach role.

On to us, there's rightly some question marks over us with all the changes made to the squad but with Cartwright coming in as Coach and inclusion of leadership within the squad think we can challenge for 8th and maybe higher if we get a bit of luck and Leeds and Salford struggle.

I do think generally the quality of SL is lower than it has been for a long while and Wigan are the really the only standouts though KR, Wire and Catalans have the potential to be up there but still think Wigan are just too complete in comparison to every other team.

Re: 2025 league predictions : Thu Jan 02, 2025 3:58 pm  

HU8HFC wrote:

It is nice to see some people have confidence in the squad and that a 6th place finish is achievable, but for me we would be banking on a few sides better than us to have a bad year which does feel pretty unlikely.

2025 Season - Be competitive again, get fans back onside and give us something to build on. 8-9th place will be seen as progress.

2026 Season - Challenging for top 6 will be seen as an expectation rather than ambition. 5-6th place finish would be the target.

2027 Season - Consolidating ourselves as a top 6 club whilst pushing for a top 4 finish. 6th place would be the minimum, 4th place or above would be the aim.

I don't think it is impossible for us to be 6th come September but, as you say, we will require quite a lot to fall our way for it to come to pass.
We will need to stay relatively injury free with the team, and individual players, performing to somewhere around their optimum level for the bulk of the season. Even then, we will most likely be relying on a batch of other sides (Leigh, Leeds, Salford probably) to significantly underperform in order to open up that sixth play-off spot.
That's a fair amount of coincidence/luck going our way for us to pinch a play-off spot. Think it may be twelve months too early to start thinking along those lines.

Seem to recall I put forward a similar argument before the start of last year as to how we could sneak sixth, and look how that turned out

Agree with you, think the mid-term plan is to put some solid foundation stones in place over this year, and probably next, before making ourselves play-off contenders again in 2027. To go from eleventh (with just three wins) to a play-off spot in twelve months feels like taking two leaps in one go. As I said, it may happen, but think we're asking for a fair bit to fall our way for it to be.
I'm not setting the bar too high for 2025, we really have been burned very badly these past four years. All I am looking for this season is signs that we are once more moving in an upwards direction, even if it is only small steps to begin with.