Addy was standout for Scotland in WC and attracting interest from NRL.Tomkins has been decent for us and will benefit from full pre season.We have bought well imo. We don't have 2 roly polys like you but we do look physically bigger as a pack and have more aggresion than the last few year. As for speed in backs Hall,ShawDagger,VaiVai,Crooks are all quick.Atkin in the halves is rapid. I'd say all our centres are quicker than Lynne and Tupou? I have little concern over your view of our team and am confident we will go fine. 2 top 5 finishes for your team is commendable but I can't see you troubling the top 5 this time.

The rest I'll accept though not agree with as far as it goes but that is purely agents rubbish - not on this planet is Addy NRL standard, not even remotely, seriously man not even close.

I'd say none of your backs are quicker than Tupou and not any quicker than Lyne.

As for your last comment, that's exactly what they all said last year and the year before that but you have it your way.

I do think there’s a risk that now our pack (hopefully) won’t get dominated so often, some assume the opposite will be true. My expectation is that it’ll be competitive at least, most weeks.

Addy offers versatility, and might get into the 17. Imo his best position is second row, and we have better options to start there. I think any suggestion he starts at 13 might reflect a dissatisfaction with how the modern game is played, rather than what is likely to happen.

I think we have recruited well, especially under the circumstances. However, Quinlan will be a big miss for most/all of the season unless Dagger has a real breakthrough year.

Many said the same about Cooper and Hodgson.Who knows if a team might have taken a punt on him? Look I have no problem with Wakey even the 20 year of bull about stadium etc. Fact is after a little relative success a few prominent Wakey posters on here have gotten very pious.Counts for nothing this coming season and I see Wakey between 7 and 10. Sorry if this offends. Like you say we will see soon enough

Dagger
Vaivai
Linnett
Kienhorst
Hall
McGuire
Altkin
Scruton
Lunt
Masoe
Tomkins
Hauraki
Mulhern

Garbutt
Lawler
Addy
Greenwood\Lannon\Jewitt ....a horse for a course.

Best defensive 17 we've had in a while. Big aggressive with some guile at 1, 6,7 ,and 9. We need another pivot. Plenty of cover though for the rest in Crooks, Oakes, Wallis, Shaw, Cator, Lee etc

It doesn’t offend me, it certainly doesn’t surprise me - however it does baffle me aa no one ever gives an explanation.

As a team we have been consistent. We’ve created and retained our best players. We’ve recruited strongly again yet we are continually told we will go backwards this season. No other team would get that reaction imho.

Then you compound it by suggesting you’ve moved dramatically forward despite lacking most of the things we have. We have proven assets whilst yours are for now purely speculative and hyperthetical -do you see my issue?

On recent form which is the only real indicator we should be ranked to finish 6th. Whether we will who knows but logically for now that is the only reasonable conclusion that can be reached imo.

I think you are just a bit sensitive after years of hardship and now after 2 decent season think you are entitled to automatic respect or the title "Big/Top Club "not unlike our neighbours. Youve had years of Leeds Cas Hudds etc belittling your set up and team but built on having the biggest pack in the league now are going toe to toe. That's fine by me. Well done... Our 2 games against you last year your pack absolutely mullered ours through sheer size difference. I/we are just speculating that hopefully those days are gone.It remains to be seen if it works out that way?

Wakey may have finished well in the Super 8's comp, but they only finished the regular season 4 points ahead of us. Don't get me wrong we were soundly beaten in both games by yourselves, but had we won one of those we would have finished the regular season on the same points. This was a season when we had a horrific run of luck and injuries and were only saved by having one of the deepest squads in memory. For context you used 26, while we had to use 36.

If i was a Wakey fan the performances in the Super 8s would rightly have me feeling confident about finishing ahead of us and you are right there is obviously some real quality in your squad. No caveats it's a good team.

It will be interesting to see how all teams but especially wakey adapt to the 8 interchange rule. Big forwards like paulo, fifita and england are not big minute men, so only have shorter number of subs may have an effect on their impact if they need to do longer minutes.

Although no big beasts like them, im hoping we have enough staying power for long minutes other than Mose, who i expect will do 20 before half time and around 10-15 after every game. We defo have people who can play big minutes in mulhern, scruton, greenwood, lannon etc

Fifita usually plays around 60 out of the 80, on 2 occasions last year Pauli Pauli played the full 80 with out been taken off once so not too sure where you get that from? I would have agreed had you said Huby etc but with the signing of Kopczak I imagine he might be down the pecking order in 2019.