Hasbag: Starting to think top 6 might even be a slight possibility this year.
It's still early days but some of the teams I had to finish above us actually look worse than us early doors. Catalans look awful. Leeds are very hit and miss and haven't really been tested yet. Salford are an absolute mess.
Before the season I had the 6th stop as a fight between Leeds, Salford and Leigh. Leigh look better than I expected and Leeds look worse.
Saints have played 1 good side and looked clueless. Our attack on Thursday night looked so much better than Saints.
Warrington also look worse than last season.
It's obviously very early doors and teams will improve and start to find their feet, but hopefully that also rings true for us, and we also continue to improve.
We will be tested with our squad depth at some point (I suppose we have already to a degree) but I honestly do believe, having seen what I've seen of other teams so far, we have a genuine shot of hitting 6th IF we can keep a healthy squad, or even if we can add a further addition to the squad through the year, such as a centre.
We're still massively behind the top teams so our time in the playoffs would be short lived but it would be a huge achievement to even get there. I don't believe we have played to our full potential yet this season, I think there is still some good improvement to be made.
Know what you mean about top-six possibility.
Watching that game last night, it was hard not to sit there thinking 'well, why not us!' Before the season began, think most people had Leeds/Leigh/Cats/Salford as the mid-four who would be battling it out for the fifth/sixth spots in the play-offs, but Leigh apart, the other three look stumbling so far and who knows how the Salford situation will ultimately pan out.
Like you say, we are reliant on avoiding any major injury crisis and whether we can maintain the intensity we showed on Thursday night over the course of seven months still remains to be seen, but for the first time in six/seven years we, as a club, appear to be looking upwards rather than nervously backwards/downwards!
I try not to get too carried away simply on the basis of a couple of decent performances/results, but after years of already feeling despondent by March about our prospects for the rest of season, the simple fact that the likes of us all on here are positively discussing the possibility of pinching a play-off spot feels good.
As you say, early days but the fact we look fit, committed and organized as a team is what is finally giving hope at last for the long-suffering faithful. Fingers crossed this continues at least into Good Friday!
