Winning a Grand Final and not getting promoted can be lethal. From Grand Final victory in 1999, Hunslet have slipped and struggled to the point where prodigal son Roy Sampson has been called upon to rebuild the club from the roots up.

Hanging a team on old stagers Lee Bargate (ex Fev/Batley) and Hawks stalwart Mick Coyle, he's signed 10 new players - all from the amateur game.

But the change we'll all thank Sampson for is his restoration of the South Leeds Stadium pitch to its full width. Last term, Hunslet's was - quite deliberately - the narrowest pitch in the league, so credit is due that his aim isn't merely to keep scores down this season.

But this may come back to haunt him because - as Hornets were coughing and spluttering to victory over Batley last week - Hunslet were busy getting a good old-fashioned pasting at Hull KR.

Old-head Bargate led the charge to defeat, getting himself dismissed for a high tackle early in the second half, whilst centre Paul Seal spent ten minutes in the sin bin just 10 minutes into the new season (Hull KR scored twice while he was kicking his heels). Perhaps Sampson should have a quiet word about discipline too. All of the Hawks points came from scrum half Chris Ross (a 20 metre interception try and the conversion after half an hour).

Interestingly - given Batley's approach last week - Rovers' coach Gary Wilkinson had this to say about Hunslet, "I thought they came to spoil a bit and I'm sure on another day we'd have scored even more points." So we could be in for another less than pretty game.

As for Hornets, Paul Owen will still be on 'radio duty' with his broken finger - the impressive Casey Mayberry filling in at full back. Martin Hall will also be hoping that Brendan O'Meara's foot problem has improved sufficiently to allow him to play. The conundrum, though, is who drops out of the 17, given that James Bunyan had a cracking game on defence last week and bench comprised Damian Ball, Joe Berry, David Larder and Matt Long.

In talking to people in the last week, one of the most common topics has been the weight of expectation for this coming season. Any other year a decent victory over Batley on the opening day would have been more than sufficient, but on the back of last season's heroics, anything less than an exhibition style rout tends to leave you slightly disappointed. But give it time. We have new players in all of the key positions and they'll take time to develop a rhythm and a rapport. Yes, Danny will be a loss, but we have an abundance of good ball handlers to compensate and Hally will only find a new and effective permutation by watching us play together.

Games like the one this Sunday are crucial if Hornets are to build the foundation for the season and Hally will be well aware that good away wins separate the pretenders from the contenders.

Batley was the first step on a long journey and we'll be better for it this week. South Leeds Stadium is only 40 minutes up the motorway, so you have no excuses. We'll be there making some noise so come and join us. You'd be mad to miss it.