We take a look at some of the big issues for Friday's two Super League matches, with St Helens facing Salford Red Devils, live on Sky Sports, and Hull Kingston Rovers hosting Wakefield Trinity...
Evolution not revolution for Woolf
Kristian Woolf knows as well as anyone he is joining a St Helens team sitting in what is a rare position for an incoming head coach.
Rather than being tasked with reviving a struggling club, the man who helped steer Tonga to their position as the emerging powerhouse of international rugby league inherits a team which swept all before them in Super League last year.
Woolf's compatriot Justin Holbrook, who is now back in his homeland attempting to lift the malaise around NRL bottom-markers Gold Coast Titans, would be hard enough act for any coach to follow at Saints.
But while the 44-year-old former Newcastle Knights assistant acknowledges that, he has embraced the task of finding one or two tweaks to make to ensure St Helens do not allow their Super League crown to slip in 2020.
"It's a little bit different," Woolf said. "Most of the time you come to a new club because there have been problems and you're trying to fix things.
"Obviously, I'm coming into this club where you've got a terrific group of players, the coach has done a really good job beforehand and the habits are really good.
"We've talked about not trying to change things too much, but trying to find little ways to evolve our game and be a little bit better."
One thing which is unchanged is the make-up of the St Helens squad, save for some more up-and-coming youth system products, although Tommy Makinson, Morgan Knowles and James Roby are not fit for Friday's 2019 Grand Final rematch at home to Salford Red Devils after undergoing off-season surgery.
And Woolf revealed he turned down the opportunity to bring in any new faces after being impressed with the squad resources he has at his disposal already.
"Looking through the roster and what they were capable of doing last year, and having a look at some of the young guys coming through, we certainly don't see the need to do that," Woolf said.
Watson lays out ambitions
In contrast to St Helens' unchanged squad, Grand Final runners-up Salford have a distinctly new look to their team following some high-profile departures and new arrivals following the conclusion of the 2019 season.
The likes of top try-scorer Niall Evalds, skipper Lee Mossop and Tonga international Tui Lolohea have remained, though, with ex-Wigan Warriors three-quarter Dan Sarginson, former London Broncos duo Rhys Williams and Luke Yates, plus England half-back Kevin Brown among those who have joined.
Head coach Ian Watson was lauded for how he moulded together a Red Devils side which proved capable of reaching Super League's Old Trafford showpiece on a tight budget and he faces a similar task this time around after rebuilding the squad during the off-season.
The former Salford player, who signed a new two-year contract in the build-up to Friday's clash at Totally Wicked Stadium, is in no mood to accept last year's run to the Grand Final was a one-off, though.
"You would have liked to have the consistency to build on that but what we've got from what we've had to let go has been a real positive," Watson said.
"I'd say we're a stronger squad than we were last year in terms of personnel. They're great characters and they're probably smarter rugby players.
"The new players have added to that environment, they have a desire to achieve and win something."
Rovers not worried about naysayers
A significant number of pundits have tipped them for relegation this year and the bookmakers have them as narrow favourites to finish bottom, but neither of those factors are of any concern for those in East Hull.
Having avoided relegation by the skin of their teeth in 2019, Hull Kingston Rovers have embarked on a huge squad rebuilding programme ahead of head coach Tony Smith's first full season in charge of the club, having replaced Tim Sheens midway through last season.
No fewer than 20 new players have joined Rovers for the 2020 campaign, with former New Zealand international Shaun Kenny-Dowall, Greg Minikin, Matty Gee, Elliot Minchella, Will Maher, Matthew Storton and Ryan Brierley all in the squad to face Wakefield Trinity on Friday evening.
How quickly they will gel remains to be seen, but former Toronto Wolfpack half-back Brierley, writing in his column in the Hull Daily Mail, is adamant the KR squad are not paying any attention to what anyone outside of the camp thinks about their prospects for 2020.
"It's daft to make predictions before a ball is kicked," Brierley said. "As a group we're very confident and there's no panic about predictions.
"Our biggest challenge is gelling after limited time together. The challenge isn't the other teams coming at us, the challenge is within ourselves."
Johnstone and Wakefield aiming high
It is easy to forget that before their squad was ravaged by injury in 2019, Wakefield Trinity were among the sides fighting it out for a place in the end-of-season play-offs.
Having then become embroiled in a relegation battle which went right down to the final round of the regular season, Trinity managed to survive and are aiming to ensure that does not happen again this time around.
They kick the 2020 season off with a trip to another of last year's strugglers, Hull KR, and have the likes of winger Tom Johnstone available again after recovering from the ACL injury which curtailed his campaign.
"From where we were sitting before the injuries, we thought it would be a season we'd remember for the good and not the wrong," Johnstone said.
"We've recruited really well and we've got a lot of senior players to come in which will lead us, help us out a bit more and help those young players as well so if we do lose a starting player we've got someone just as capable to come in and do a job.
"Hopefully that helps us throughout the season to push towards the top five."
The injury problems have not quite abated though, with David Fifita, Tinirau Arona, George King and Alex Walker all unavailable for the match at Hull College Craven Park.
However, Trinity have been able to strengthen their squad ahead of the match by bringing prop Romain Navarrete in on loan from Wigan and the Frenchman joins newcomers Joe Westerman, Josh Wood and the returning Jay Pitts in Chris Chester's 21-man squad.