I'll be amazed if Crossley isn't the captain next season.



FWIW my 17 would be



McNally/Pickersgill

Hitchcox

Webster

Oakes/Gibson

Ryan

Keyes

Chisholm

Crossley

Wildie

Green

Farrell/Storton

Garside/Minchella

Wood/Hallas/Minchella



Bustin

Peltier

Flanagan/Lilley

Hallas/Storton/Wood



As you can see I'm struggling to pick our starting pack! Always good to have options I suppose

who would you see the top 5 ending up being?

toronto - widnes - toulouse - halifax



but who else?



you would expect us to be beating the likes of rochdale and swinton



barrow, dewsbury, sheffield, york and batley we should be at least competitive with



which just leads us with fev and leigh. and who knows how strong they are going to be, especially leigh, who dont know who is going to playing for them next season



so that last top 5 spot does seem up for grabs

For the first time in a long while we look strong up front. I was a bit concerned about the lack of mongrel a while back but I think some players have grown up and become less of a soft touch. Take Mikey Wood, he's really come on and puts himself about a bit now.

The central funding allocation in this division makes me really nervous.

I think there are plans to level the funding out a bit but I still get anxious thinking about what we've budgeted for compared to where we actually end up.

You only need to look at Leigh (and ourselves a couple of years ago) to see what can happen when you get it wrong.

im hoping pickersgill gets more games over mcnally

and i want to see more of storton too, he really impressed when he came in towards the end of the season

I think Fev will be in the same group as us Barrow, Dewsbury, Batley, Sheffield and York. Probably the upper end because even though they've lost a few players they're accustomed to this level and have recruited a few decent players too in the Boas brothers.



Poor Leigh look like they're doomed unless they can rustle up a squad from somewhere quick.

i do feel very sorry for the leigh fans. it feels too close to what we have had to go through in the past



doesnt it feel nice to be having a pre season where we can discuss the first team, instead of not knowing if we will actually have a team

I think the levelling out of the central allocations should mean less of a cliff edge for clubs, provided the owner hasn’t gone all in on a bid for promotion. I think we’re in a better position as we’ll get a bigger allocation in 2019 and again in 2020 provided we don’t get relegated.







I think Storton is probably just behind Minchella, Farrell and Garside for a spot. He’s done really well considering he’s had some bad injuries. John Bastian thinks he’ll do really well with the benefit of tough pre season training. He’ll be in the 19 man squad often enough I reckon.



At fullback I think there’ll be some really healthy competition. If McNally can get fully fit he still gets the nod for me.

Pickersgill

Hitchcox

Webster

Gibson

Ryan

Keyes

Chisholm

Crossley

Wildie

magrin

Farrell

Storton

Minchella



Bustin

Peltier

Flanagan

Wood



close call between green and magrin

I would think Crossley will be captain, with my lad vice captain, as it was for last couple of month of this season. Not heard anything that’s just my opinion

in your first 17, would you have your lad at SR or LF?

Top 5 for me this year:



Toronto

Widnes

Toulouse

Halifax

Bradford



I think this year with a fairly stable good team we have a really decent chance teams such as fev and Dewsbury and Sheffield have had massive turnovers of players we have been stable though fev I admit have got the boas brothers they have a young squad and though there forwards look big, playing in the Academy and having Ross Peltier running at you he’ll for leather on a cold rainy February are 2 different things