I'm really looking forward to see how you guys go in 2020 as that is a very good squad of players at your disposal

Some very good overseas signings have come in to complement the talented players that are still there, so you should realistically be finishing between 2nd and 4th in SL IMO

Radford simply has to deliver with this squad in 2020 IMO as this is definitely a side that should be winning trophies or making finals.
If the club don't go well then he might not make it to 2021 as head coach.

Cant wait for the season to start.
The fastest set of backs we have had with Ratu,Swift,Shaul and Albo,behind a powerful mobile pack with players who can bust tackles and can offload with ease.
What will also help is the ability to field a strong bench and have some quality players in reserve when needed.
I just hope Radford lets the forwards play their natural game and not use all of them as front rows.
If we get a good start and the team confidence builds early we will finish in the top two.

Merry Xmas to all

The only area I think we may fall slightly short in is in the props, Taylor and Satae I think will go well, but I still think there's a lot of question marks over Bowden due to his injury. Then we still don't know if Matongo can find any consistency and if Bienek is going to come good. So for me we only have the two props we know will go steady at least.

Some may point to Sao but I reckon he's been signed to play big minutes at loose forward. Will Savelio be used second row or prop? Is Fash good enough for prop?

It'll be very interesting to see what plans and how we make use of the pack as well as if Matongo no Bienek as well as Fash really step up a gear this season, last season for me we had way too many games when Taylor tried doing the lot by himself, go back and look at some of the stats for Carrys amongst the props some of them were ridiculous where Taylor and Ellis where posting stupid figures compared to the rest.

It may be resolved with Purtell as attacking coach whereas the ball distribution to the props is varied more and not to the same guys over and over

I've predicted Hull to finish 3rd behind Saints and Wigan. Wouldn't surprise me to see you finish above Wigan though and I think with the pack you have assembled you have every chance of turning Saints over on any given day.

Er, you have assessed Sneyd as arrogant and overrated, and Kelly a complete disgrace. Quite how you arrive at this overblown "prediction" in that context is baffling.

Good post. Doesn't matter how many fancy offloading backrowers we have if we're getting skittled in the middles or failing to get out of our half. I'd hope Savelio targets a place in the front row personally as think him, Taylor, Satae and a fit/firing Bowden could be our best grouping.

Well, tbf, it was based mainly on the strength of your pack and both Sneyd and Kelly are halfbacks. Arrogance is neither here or there, indeed ‘confidence’ is often seen as valuable in a halfback (especially). I’ve not seen the post you’re referring to it, but Sneyd does what he does very competently; I doubt RBA would rate him worse than that - or, even if he’d drop the ‘very’, i don’t see that as conflicting with his prediction.

What is the context of Kelly being a disgrace? As a player, or the stuff he’s done off the pitch? I imagine the latter?

I can see Hull finishing anywhere from second to seventh, giving myself a very good chance of being right. I see them as being among a bigg-ish field looking to narrow the gap to where Saints were this year gone. Jones and Ma’u looks a brutal second row.

Off topic, it seems a bit odd that Faraimo didn’t have a sponsor when the squad numbers were announced. I know he’s competing for the wing spots with Swift, Fonua and Naulago, but wings are usually among the most in demand, after the goalkicker, and you’d expect him to run in a few tries during the season. Price probably reflects that, of course.

I've not seen many top 2-3 sides with a merely competent HB pairing frankly. Without wishing to be patronising this is why they are so very expensive and important. And interestingly there's quite the buzz of brilliance afforded to Gale today.

I see us as in the 5-8 slot or thereabouts, depending on injuries, so a tad below you. I have read too much about Lee Radford's shortcomings to believe we could be runners up in a comp with loads of clubs having marquee players, benefactors, bigger fanbases etc. That said I'm really looking forward to this season and prop depth apart like the look of our squad more than most years. Big turnover in the squad by definition gives you grounds for hope as you know it is likely to be different.

I think our opening fixtures will be critical and given their high level of difficulty, defining. A decent return could set us up nicely, but there won't be patience and time to gel afforded.

I think it's pretty obvious that we were looking for anther prop when fonua came on the market and the club went for him instead which leaves us really short in the front row. satae looked OK but was really unfit and blowing after a couple of runs so hopefully he will be better after a full pre season with us. We will still be heavily reliant on taylor and we've seen his form dip in the last year or so due to him having to carry the rest of the pack - hopefully our improved back row will improve things and I expect we'll see ellis playing prop whenever he plays.

Whilst our recruitment looks good on paper, the squad is really unbalanced with far too many back rowers and outside backs so I expect we may look to move some players on during the season if we can.

Our attack definitely needed improving but our defence was much worse and we finished the season conceding only 21 points less than the worst defence in superleague. This is the critical area to improve. If we don't then 2020 will be another washout and radford won't last the season.

We could finish anywhere between 2nd and 8th but my feeling we'll be 4th to 6th, depending on if we sort our defence out and how other teams go

Cheers Mrs Barista, interesting your point about Savelio, he could well be an option at Prop he's certainly a strong lad, my own thoughts on him were he d be used as cover and to spell Sao at loose forward possibly as well as second row, one things for sure it'll be very interesting seeing how we line up come first game. In an ideal world Matongo will find some consistency and possibly be more assertive and demanding the ball becoming busier.

Il throw this out their, I think if Faraimo finds himself short of game time this season I wouldn't be surprised to see him head out and his wage possibly be used to sign a forward, don't quote me on this though unless it comes true hahaha