Mrs Barista wrote:
Saints
Warrington
Castleford
Wakefield
Catalans
I never said I would be "so happy" with 5th, I said it would be more than I expect. As said, we have the backs/halves but Taylor carried our pack last year and continues to do so. Our props as a group, particularly if you discount Bowdeb and Green as no-shows, are just not a match for other sides in that list and we need a platform. Let's not reopen the Watts wound but...
Saints and Warrington goes without saying. They simply have better players than us. The Castleford squad is similar to ours in terms of quality, but Powell gets the best out of them. So I agree with those three. In pre season when we were making predictions they were my top 3. Injuries could derail Castleford, they have had some poor results themselves, but so far they are doing ok.
Catalans blow hot and cold. They beat the top 2 but have looked like a championship side at other times. Given that they always struggle away from home I would be disappointed if we end up behind them. Again their squad is comparable to ours in quality.
Wakefield just simply shouldn't be expected to be ahead of us. I don't really like the phrase "accepting mediocrity" that gets thrown around on here, but I can't understand how you can be expecting to finish behind Wakefield and be content with that. Chester has done a great job with them and there are some players there that would walk into our team. But they don't spend full cap, they play in a wreck of a ground with modest support, they have a squad comprised mostly of cast offs who failed elsewhere (we are one of the bigger contributors here) and they currently have a worse injury situation than we do.
Personally I consider 5th to be our minimum target. If we can't do that despite some big clubs having terrible seasons then we have failed, and questions have got to be asked.