Oh and merry Christmas everyone 

I do not think we will make the top 4. Oldham & London are far stronger & with teams like Sheffield, Batley, NW Crusaders & Goole Vikings & others  having much easier fixtures more likely 6th or so. I am not saying all of those will finish above us but a fair few could. Obviously the RL recognise this by the fact it is rumoured for a top 10 sides play off.

A Merry Christmas to all involved with the club including all message board users.

Under this format I'm not even confident we'll make the top 10 

@cumbria-viking I agree the squad list is poor the back line has hardly changed and isn't good enough , we haven't bought enough props gregson , bent and Roberts should only be squad players not starters and before people say it's only numbers has there been a time gregson hasn't played if fit ?

After seeing the squad being announced I'm not confident we will make the top ten with that new format. 

When are we as a club ever going to realise you need some big props in the championship. Bent being a 10 is an absolute farce, I'm actually thinking I shouldn't have bothered renewing my ST. 

Think if we can avoid injuries we will make top 4 

@7-vikingnomad sorry I just don't see it London Oldham are miles ahead of us Doncaster and Sheffield on squad strength ahead of us and Gateshead and Batley because of a ridiculously easy fixture list !!! 
then your looking at barrows Halifax etc that we struggle with apart from abdull I don't really see a improvement

@vikingfox71 

fair enough, but I do feel we have a slightly improved squad from last season

maybe lacking in prop numbers but if the 3 can keep injury free along with langtree we will go well

bent will be on the bench I assume

the 2+strange ones are fb where I thought maizen would be first choice,

And lf - appreciate that the gregson is the golden child, but to me he is third behind mcwhirter and hall

Only time will tell 

@7-vikingnomad langtree won't last 5 games before his shoulder goes again...bent is on that front row as quick as Dan Murray is ....abdull the one that really could improve us could go one of two ways ....it'll be a disaster via old injuries recurring or just bad fitness ...or he'll rip it up for a couple of  months before sacking us off for a club with ambition.... almost certainly he will have a SL clause and almost certainly if that gets activated you won't see him for dust ...

I think we could see quite a few players leave early in the season and that may be reflected in the squad numbers but that’s just my personal outlook, if offered better money maizen, mcwhirter could all be gone before halfway through the season. The league to me has become somewhat of a nothing now that promotion/relegation isn’t decided by winning the League and with one game loans makes it a bit of a reserves league. I can see London up and 1 down and close the doors. If they want to see a fair way of doing it like that  then revert back to the licensing system which would be reviewed and 1 up and 1 down every 4 seasons or something similar decided by league position and stadium facilities etc 

the reason rugby league is going downhill is because the product and marketing of the sport has been very poor for the last 15-20 years over here. The NRL is the best business model for us to follow, not the style of game but the way they advertise etc.

say what you want about DB but at least he’s getting involved and trying to promote the game and if the club wants to get back into super league it needs to find investment from wherever it can, dcbl put money into the club and people complain 🤦‍♂️

@cumbria-viking 

well I really hope you are wrong regarding langtree - when fit he is probably our best forward

if we can get 20 games out of him a season that will be a huge bonus

he goes off and Lawton comes on - the opposition defence will be thinking, when does this end ?
but of course we will have gregson and bent instead ……