Pre-season conclusions: St Helens worries, Hull FC hope, Man of Steel early pick…

Aaron Bower
Jake Connor and David Armstrong

What have been the big pre-season talking points ahead of the 2025 Super League season?

So, that was the 2025 pre-season: or most of it, anyway.

For the 12 Super League clubs, the action begins for real this weekend with the first competitive action of 2025, with the Third Round of the Challenge Cup before the league season starts a week later.

And with everyone taking to the field at some stage over the past month or so, there are a fair few nuggets of information we’ve been able to pick out that might give us a hint as to what’s to come.

Here’s our look at some conclusions from pre-season..

St Helens will need time to click

Or so it seems, anyway. Granted, it’s a small sample size so far but we can only work with what we’ve got – and the evidence from their defeat to Salford Red Devils well.. it wasn’t good, was it?

The thing is, it’s a long old season – and what happens at the start doesn’t necessarily dictate what happens at the end. With a new attack coach coming in, it’s clearly not going to be an overnight thing to for Lee Briers to overhaul what the Saints are doing.

Patience may well be needed in the early stages of 2025, Saints fans.

David Armstrong: get excited

Look, we’ll attempt to caveat everything we say with the notion of there’s not an abundance of game-time to work off. But if we’re going to get excited about new signings, then we might as well go all the way.

Leigh were very impressive on Saturday against Warrington – and one player stood out in particular. The fact the Leopards have got David Armstrong here at all is somewhat of a coup given how he’s only 23 and would have had suitors in the NRL.

But he looked the real deal on Saturday against one of Super League’s best teams. If he clicks, he could be one of the standout players of the season.

Hull FC have some spirit

We know. February and all that. We haven’t played a competitive game yet, and all that.

But Hull supporters who would have made the trip to Castleford on Saturday would have likely been encouraged by some real resilience and spirit shown by John Cartwright’s side.

There are undisputedly bigger and more meaningful tests to come. But after what was a shambolic 2024 campaign, Hull fans would simply hope for some fight and endeavour from their side as a starting point. They showed it on Saturday with some spirited defending on numerous occasions to suggest they can start to think about climbing the table under Cartwright.

Jake Connor will be more vital than first thought

In both of Leeds‘ pre-season hit-outs, Jake Connor has looked increasingly influential in a side that have had their fair share to deal with throughout the last couple of months.

First-choice fullback Lachie Miller is in a race to be fit for the opening weekend of the new Super League season, and new signing Maika Sivo has gone for the entire year.

That leaves Leeds light 0n one hand, but also very fortunate they have a player in Connor who can cover multiple roles. Furthermore, he has looked fantastic against both Wakefield and Wigan, suggesting Leeds could have pulled off a shrewd piece of business in signing a player still with plenty to offer the highest level.

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