KEY POINTS:
If Super League coaches and the competition's theorists are to be believed, this is the season when young British talent will come to the fore.
The argument over whether the game needs promotion and relegation has been both won and lost. Nobody will be battling against
that fate this year. Instead, midway through the season, licences for the next three years - probably 14 of them - will be issued to the chosen clubs.
The risks underlying this are obvious. The rest of the season could seem meaningless for clubs out of the running for the play-offs. No more nerve-jangling nights like the one at Wakefield two seasons ago, when Castleford went down.
The Castleford coach, Terry Matterson, has been one of the leading voices calling for change.
"I would have been able to give a lot more game time to young British players that season if we had not had the threat of relegation hanging over us," he has always argued. Well, now they don't; time to see what happens.
There has been a genuine problem to tackle here. The Wakefield side that escaped relegation included just one British-developed player in the starting 13 and that is no good for the long-term health of the game in this country. Import quotas do not work, because national and international law knocks too many holes in them.
The Rugby League is instead working towards a system of incentives to develop your own, coupled with abolishing the biggest inducement towards the short-term thinking that will always prefer an overseas veteran to a kid fresh out of the academy, namely promotion and relegation.
Look at the squads for the 12 clubs this time and you will find plenty of Australian and Kiwi names, but this is the season when the tide should start to turn.
If that is the case, who is best equipped to thrive under the new ground rules? The most remarkable feature of the new team rosters is that neither of last season's two best sides, Leeds and St Helens, has signed a single player. Their only activity in the market has been to send young fringe players out on loan.
You could take this as evidence that the salary cap is biting, the way it does in American and Australian sport, by making life deliberately difficult for the successful clubs.
Far from being geared to make the strong stronger, the cap is designed to bring them back into the crowd. Win a title and your existing players are worth more, so you have a job to retain them, let alone stock up from elsewhere.
Both the Saints and the Rhinos, though, have faith in their production lines; not just players such as James Roby, James Graham and Lee Smith who have already established their credentials, but in the next batch snapping at their heels.
The new blood at Leeds will be supplied by Brian McClennan, who has succeeded Tony Smith as coach. Perhaps the best commentary on his qualities is the heap New Zealand have collapsed into since he decamped to Headingley.
No club got better value from a young prodigy last season than Bradford did from Sam Burgess. Super League's Young Player of the Year is still only 19 and could develop into the dominant forward in the game this season. There are plenty more, almost equally exciting prospects coming through, plus new recruits who give them enviable depth. With a bit more zip at half-back - and assuming they don't lose Shontayne Hape prematurely - they are genuine title candidates.
So, on paper at least, are Warrington. Paul Cullen bemoans their terrible luck with injuries in recent seasons, but there has been another problem as well n the excessive reliance on one gifted but brittle player in Lee Briers. Everything this year is geared to lifting the burden off his shoulders. Thus Adrian Morley is captain and Michael Monaghan an authoritative play-making alternative. In theory, opponents should no longer know where Briers is going to strike, which could be good news for the mouth-watering left-flank partnership of Matt King and Kevin Penny - the latter could turn out to be the most exciting wing prospect for a generation.
Wigan are a club who should never be short of young, local talent. Two to watch this year are the centre, Darrell Goulding, and the live-wire hooker, Michael McIlorum. The dependence on the creative skills of Trent Barrett is a worry, however. If he and one or two others got injured, they would struggle badly.
There might be no relegation, but parochial rivalry will burn as brightly as ever, particularly on Humberside.
Hull appear to have the edge in local talent, but Hull Kingston Rovers, in their shadows for too long, have recruited ambitiously. It is a private battle in which the red-and-white half of the city could just get the upper hand, especially in view of Hull's pre-season injury toll.
Huddersfield made the play-offs last time and their coach, Jon Sharp, does not want them to be "one-hit wonders". They actually have more English-qualified players in their squad than anyone - including Leeds and Saints - and have been a real success story on and off the field. They will know, however, that they cannot afford to lose their first seven matches and play catch-up again.
Over at Wakefield, their coach John Kear will continue to provide refuge for players considered to be too problematic and maladjusted elsewhere. He is making the most intriguing positional switch of the new season, moving Jason Demetriou - outstanding in the centres all last year - to loose forward.
That leaves three clubs who threaten to be a little off the pace.
Without the talismanic Stacey Jones, victories on the road could be hard to find for the Catalan Dragons. Provided they can remain competitive at their Stade Gilbert Brutus home, though, they should retain their credibility in Perpignan.
Harlequins unequivocally see their future lying in developing the massive pool of ability that exists in London. All very praiseworthy, but it is long-term stuff and will not necessarily bring a thin squad many wins this time.
Last but certainly not least significant, Matterson gets his chance to unveil the young players he brought through in National League One last year. One of them, the back-row forward, Joe Westerman, is so good that he could celebrate his 19th birthday next November in Australia for the World Cup.
That will be the best barometer of whether the sacrifice of the drama at the bottom end of the table has been worthwhile. If Tony Smith, now the England coach, looks at his range of options and finds himself spoilt for choice, then the price might be worth paying.
- INDEPENDENT