blonde poker forum

starts this week

Of note is the new structure to the season, which sees the top four battle it out for a place in the Grand Final, while the bottom four take on the top four from the Championship division, in a contest for Super League status the following season. What do you think of the format changes?

http://www.superleague.co.uk/rlnewera


Grand Final Winner

Unsurprisingly, last years Grand Finalists are the top two in the betting. with runners-up Wigan 3/1 favourites to lift the title and champions St.Helens at 7/2. Outside of those two, Warrington are 9/2 and Challenge Cup holders Leeds, who endured a torrid end to last season are 6/1. It’s 12/1 bar those.

who wins?


Regular Season Winner

St.Helens finished top of the regular season table in 2014 on thirty-eight points, with just four points separating the leaders and fifth place. Wigan and surprise package Huddersfield finished a point adrift, Castleford earned fourth a further point behind, while Warrington on thirty-five, finished fifth.

Just three of the last ten league shield winners have gone on to win the Grand Final, with St.Helens, doing so last year. St.Helens have won five shields in that period of time, with the 4/1 available worth a shout, despite my favouring of other sides for the overall title. Out of the rest, Wigan are 10/3, Warrington are 9/2 and Leeds are 7/1. Its 12/1 bar those.

who wins?

Top Four Place

As the top four in the betting are odds on, Leeds at 5/6 are the longest priced of the big four.

who might be value to get into the top 4?

Calatans and Huddersfield (third place last year) are both 13/8 to grab a top four place.

Super 8 Place

The betting for a place in the Super 8, looks pretty much nailed on with seven of the twelve sides all odds-on, with seventh in the betting, Salford, still 1/2 despite being so far down the order.

It looks to be a battle between three sides for that final spot, with Castleford at Evens, Hull FC 6/5 and Hull KR at 5/4.

Finish Bottom

The new league structure spells danger for the bottom four sides over the course of the regular season, rather than just two, with relegation a real threat to each side. However in the betting for the wooden spoon, Wakefield are 11/8 favourites, with Widnes at 3/1 and 7/1 bar those two.

who might go down?

Can we do a Fantasy Super League?

Will obv fill the void for NFL.

Don't mind contributing to the running.

Anyone know?

There's more incentive to win the league this year (slightly), and definitely more incentive to finish top 4.  So that might mean we don't see as many games 'thrown away' by the top sides this season, and the focus won't be solely on peaking for the play-offs.

I would be in for this and would certainly be the value ;o)

http://www.loverugbyleague.com/fantasyrl/

Could use that?

Wakey have been favourites to finish bottom almost every year since we got back in superleague.
We never have finished bottom.

Should be most competitive competition for quite some time.
A lot of people topping Catalans for great things but they need to sort their form on their travels. I have a sneaking suspicion that Warrington will win this year and for saints to win again they will need to keep their 2 Aussie halves and Roby fit for most of the season.

Of the sides battling for the 8 I'd leave Salford/Widnes/hull alone and maybe go for hull KR to make it

Also leeds seem a long price at 7/1 with it being the last chance for a few of their senior players plus they have some very good squad players

Wigan will probably be favourites in my book given what happened in the GF and they have signed a really underrated player in Tautai

I've set up a fantasy league - so whoever wants to join can do here:
 
http://www.loverugbyleague.com/fantasyrl/

If you head to the the friends league pages you can join the league by entering the following details:
League ID 103725
Joining ID 119942

:)up

Cheers Kin, 

Will take a look 2morrow.

Do we want to throw a £10 each for First Prize?

Could do, if we get enough taking part and entering before tomorrow's deadline.

£10 sounds a good idea.

I would participate if I could register in time. The site says my registration details look suspicious and has denied me registration

They obviously know you.

SuperLeague starts tomorrow. Here's Ian Millward with his team-by-team guide & best bets - http://bit.ly/1F1W9Wh 

Ha yeh Dan

Really? 

In:
Lee Mossop
Taulima Tautai
Larne Patrick
(+ Joel Tomkins in his first full season back in League)


Out:
Gil Dudson
Darrell Goulding
Blake Green
Eddy Pettybourne
Scott Taylor
Jack Hughes
Greg Burke
Jordan James


Other than Green, are there really any players there whose absence will weaken the side?  The players coming in will certainly strengthen the forward line, and the youngsters coming through in the half-backs such as Powell, Williams and Hampshire (especially him) should make up for the loss of Green.

It's a shame that Burgess is off to the NRL after this season, as he had a great season last time round and is only going to get better.  Him and Charnley should score a LOT of tries this season if they can both stay fit, especially with Sarginson and Gelling improving as centres.  I think most Wigan fans think the squad is stronger than last season, but it doesn't surprise me that Millward doesn't think that.

Oh, and there's another Farrell in the squad - can't be a bad thing :D

I'll be surprised if the top four isn't made up of Wigan, Leeds, Warrington and St Helens. Not sure on the order though.


Millward disagrees.

Millward is a clown and is now a reserve grade coach in the NRL. I would put him in the same bracket as Stevo as an "expert"

I've joined. In for a tenner!

me too

Four of us so far.  A small, but distinguished league :D

Could do one in here if people fancy it more:

http://www.sldreamteam.co.uk/howtoplay

The scoring system is more wide-ranging - which might make it better/worse?

Still any get in the original one despite several attempts and an email. They must have heard I won the league express fantasy league in 2000 and decided to ban me

:D

They have a no-pros policy, obviously.

Dr Koukash was on BBC radio this morning.  He's got to be good for Rugby League in this country, and it's a shame he's running Salford and not in charge of Rugby League over here.  I think it'd be in a much better place if he was.

Ah Van red card smacks of a Flower hangover IMO. Joke decision.

Definite yellow, and I thought the red was excessive. Then again, Charnley isn't coming back on again, so it wasn't a little tap.

Child is a whistle happy terrible fucking referee

Imo of course

No, you're right. This is one of the worst officiated games I've seen for ages.

Awful from Wigan in the second half. Awful referee as well. Awful commentary.

Still a brilliant sport though :D

Wigan pretty poor again. Terrible discipline, handling errors galore, and no direction for large parts of the game.

Bateman's try was the difference, what a phenomenal step.

World Club Challenge.  Men versus boys.

Gareth Hock.  Yet another who seems destined to waste his talent.

A complete fool. Wigan lucky to get rid and get something for him when they did. He's got the physical attributes, he's just not right in the head.

NRLstarts this weekend.
Premier Sports Channel 428 on sky show all 8 games every week. I think 2 are on "freeview" this weekend, including 1 this morning.

Wigan - embarrassing.

Expected. Tactics are horrible, the players look disinterested, square pegs in round holes. It'll improve during the season, bit like Liverpool.

On the plus side opposing Wigan the last 2 weeks has made up for my opposing Leeds bets.

This afternoon game was a thing of beauty if you trade in-play, so many swings.

My Dad (a Leeds fan) said that rumours were posted earlier today about Hardaker being a naughty boy at the halls of residence at the university, and that he'd been dropped for the game tonight.

Then all mentions of it vanished from the forums and facebook. Sounds pretty serious, especially now we know the police are involved, but of course it's not clear if the allegations have any foundations or not.

Sinfield to switch to Union ! If I hadn't read it yesterday I would think it was an April fool.

Deserves a nice pay day before he retires. Certainly doesn't owe Leeds anything.

I am suprised that he would get  paid more in union at that level than in league. Leeds certainly could do with him still.

Doubt it's a money thing.
He has achieved just about everything he can and age is catching up with him, so probably wanted a change of scenery and new challenge for his swan song

Sam's coming home.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/32214270

The NZ Warriors have got a good deal out of it signed Roger Tuivasa Sheck as his replacement. Will be interesting to see if wigan take first option on Sam

Would be mad not to!  There isn't a better FB in Super League, and Hardaker is currently the best by quite a distance (imo).  Would be very painful to see him at Warrington or elsewhere in the SL.
Not sure what it would mean for Hampshire though. Would love to see Hampshire move to 6, with Sam at FB.  That would be some pace and attacking guile.

I think you need him to bring some friends with him. I actually quite like Bowen so F/B is not your biggest problem.

I prefer Hampshire at FB to Bowen.  Bowen is only a shadow of what he once was.  Very solid at times, but also prone to mishaps.  He also tends to go missing in the big games and he adds far less going forward in terms of invention or threat to the opposition.

Bowen will be retiring at the end of the season anyway