Are we optomistic?
Personally I feel there is a nice balance of youth and experience but need to get off to a good start

Reasonably optimistic. Calvin Smith is a superb addition and I like the look of Aiston - hopefully he can link up well with MacKay.

The league looks very strong this year though. Can't for the life of me see us finishing top 6.

I'd be happy for a competitive team, some good footy and a top half finish. I'm confident there will be no flirting with the danger zone like last year......

i think consett should finish top half this season, they have made some astute singings, a good mixture of youth and experience, there new signings have made a big impact i think in smith and davidson. surely saturday will show consett how much they have progressed. overall im sure they'l be fine.