Sorry, didn't hear you either for the sound of sour grapes and humble pie being chomped on.

Very sore. The pain is killing me. The thought of not winning it for a 4th year in a row, well its just very painful. No really, im hurting.

Tbh honest I couldn't give a t0ss. Well done to Wigan, somebody out of the 14 teams has got to win it, I think we have done pretty darn well to do so in 07, 08, 09.

Here's to next season which is going to very interesting indeed.

Well done Wigan, thoroughly deserved it this year.

Strange lack of moaning about the salary cap & the play off system on Cherry & white that usually fills their board at this time of year

Nobody could honestly say Wigin didn't deserve the title this season, well done. This talk about domination over the next god knows how many years is tosh. They will be in the mix with all the big teams. I think SL has never been better in terms of who could win it (exception the Dulls or Cas).

Everyone should look forward to next season. Will be interesting how many coaches adopt MM's spoiling tactics around the play the ball, (which obviously contributed to their success). This is not a winge. Refs let them get away with it so fair play to them.

As for Saints chances of winning the GF next season...

In this case Leeds fans cannot help but to think back to the last 4 years. It would be arrogant for the Leeds fans to go on a rant and rave because we havn't won it for a fourth time. But we're not allowed to do that are we?

You cant fault the Goons for taking advantage of a new way of interpreting the PTB. sHudds went from cannon-fodder to 3rd in SL using a very compact defence combined with slowing the PTB down to a crawl and putting the emphasis on defence to wear down teams and the did a chuffing good job of doing this to numerous teams.

Wigan have now got in a coach who has been (cap breaches aside) involved with THE premier team in the modern NRL and is a master at these techniques. All he has done is take a modus operandi already in use here by Nathan Brown and take it to a new level.

The work he has rumored to have done behind the scenes also, including discipline, training and team bonding has taken a "nearly" team onto a nigh on dominance of this years SL.

Of course we all know that it is harder to retain a trophy and im sure the rest of SL will have sat up and taken notice of Wigans dominance this year and how they went about it so hopefully we will have a few more teams able to step it up against them next season.

Im sure that with speed at the PTB in the NRL in vogue it will be back in vogue over here in the not too distant future.

Sorry ! But...Oh dear !! Not the most convincing argument winner.

In fairness they have combined that with dynamic attacking play ultilising width. Their wingers are the Leagues top try scorers and the way they move the ball is sheer quality.
I don't like their defensive strategy at the PTB, but that's probably because it's meant they have won SL. If the refs don't see anything wrong in it then that's that. The fact Leeds got penalised to oblivion last year for similar tactics is just one of those things. Last year is last year in RL, every season an different set of the same rules are applied.
I was not in favour of super quick PTB's, it promotes lazy attacking play and taking cheap yards by scooting from dummy half, but I am equally against the drowning of the PTB as in the NRL, where from what I can see it's actually up to the tackled player to throw off the defenders who lie there until he does.

Are Wigan a new dynasty? It's impossible to tell, you just don't know what will happen year on year. The fact is though, they will not dominate the sport like they did for the large part of the 90's. That was only possible because of money (the "Wigan Way" please, what a crock of $h!t). I welcome their return as the "Enemy". Now if only Bradford could get their act together and Warrington could beat Saints, then we might have the terrific competition the salary cap is meant to provide (and I haven't forgotten about Humberside -the real "The Biggest Derby In Rugby League"icon_wink.gif.

Like you say its not everyones cup of tea, but so what. Its now up to other teams to step up and be counted and find a way of nulifying this way of playing.

As for the "wigan Way" well we all know what to think of that tripe. One swallow doth not a summer make but at the risk of sounding bitter i once again state congrats to wigan they have been the most consistant team and have deserved thier moment in the sun.