I am very ambivalent on our coming fortunes. There are positives. In theory we should be much less stagnant in attack with more natural play-making talent in the halves this year (Sandow/Gidley/Ratchford) and hopefully our changes in back-room staff will mean we'll struggle less with injuries and fitness. We have signed a good prop, but with his injury record it would be optimistic to anticipate a full-strength front row (Hill/Sims/Dodds/Evans) for any significant portion of the season. If we don't sign another prop with more experience than the likes of Evans/Philbin/King I think it's reasonable to assume we will be in trouble soon enough. Another concern is Atkins remaining a first choice centre. For me Hughes/Currie/Ratchford all get the nod over him. He stems our fluidity in attack far too much with his poor passing these days.
Overall though I feel we have strengthened. If you look at the top 6 from last year, on paper they have all taken steps backwards. For that reason I think we will do better next year, but we are a long way from reliving the glory days I fear. I think we may just make 4th, with the ladder finishing something like Wigan>Huddersfield>Saints>Wire>Leeds>Cats. CC is a lottery, though after bottling a dream run of fixtures leading to Wembley this year I am pretty pessimistic. I don't think Smith will be renewing his contract, and I think (hope?) Agar will depart with him.
