Sebasteeno wrote:For me I'd say 6th is realistic with this team and coaching setup. You could argue Salford and Leigh have over achieved this year and neither have signed anyone special to help them stay in the top six so I think we're capable of replacing them. The key thing is we need to be beating them in the regular season
Think I would describe that as optimistic rather than realistic. Saints and Catalans finished 6th/7th this year with 15 wins each (think Wire may have been the same in 2023?).
For us to go from 3 wins up to 15 is a sizable improvement in a single year, especially with virtually a new set-up and team at the start of the year. Will we need a 'bedding-in' time before we see improvements?
I don't think it's impossible for us to finish 6th, but I do think we would need a number of factors to go our way for it to happen. If the likes of Leigh, Leeds, Salford are inconsistent and we can make significant improvements then maybe 6th would come to pass, but I'm not sure we will find an extra 10-12 wins on this season that we would need to make.
Recall I made the same claim for us finishing 6th at the start of this year (based on the same premises as above) only to see it spectacularly blow up in my face before we had even reached Easter!! So I am a touch wary about sticking my neck out that far again!!
I hope you are proved to be right in this, it would certainly put some much needed feel-good factor back into the faithful, but having been burnt too often in recent years I'm erring on the side of caution on this. I just feel 6th is too big a step upwards in one move, especially given where we are starting from (almost rock bottom).