Wire seem to be bringing youth through at long last, that will stand you in good stead. 2011 has saw Saints rattle up a very big injury list, which meant the young guns had to get stuck in, they have, and have done themselves , their families and the fans proud. End result is a gig in the grand final. Royce Simmons said "I have learned something myself from this club, its their mentality, their culture to want to win, they dont talk about 2nd place" ( words to that effect ).... Wire spent a long time looking at its best 17 and forgetting anyone else outside of it. You now have a very good squad indeed and young guns coming through, the stadium, a bigger fan base, tasted glory with the 2 CC's and the hubcap this year.

Its all going in the right direction for your club, and who knows once you reach a GF you could be stringing together a run of 6 on the row like saints ?

Still can't believe we have made it to OT again.Suppose we were "fortunate" to play a Wigan side twice who had been mashed by you and were inevitably fatigued at the end of a long season.Warrington's squad is very strong and I am sure you will finish top or thereabouts next season

A winning culture can't be taught or trained.
It comes from...well....winning!!!!

Warrington have began on their path to this winning culture but it is still early days.
The 2 challenge cups and the league leaders shield this year will only help breed the right mentality into the club.
Being in the running for the grand final and the challenge cup every year will motivate the players to focus on their rugby both on and off the pitch and that in turn will feed down to the youth players coming through.

In years gone by, the attitude of the players has not been as focused and having a good time off the pitch was maybe sometimes more important than the hard work on the pitch. This would have fed down to the younger players who look up to the first team and try to emulate them.

There is no doubt now that the team is focused and very professional in all aspects, and we will benefit from this for years to come as the youngsters come through.

Next season, this team will believe that they can win everything and the loss against Leeds on Friday will only make them stronger and the lessons learned from it will help us in the same situation in 12 months time.

The problem we have now is that a lot of our leaders are coming to ther end of their careers. We will go through a transition period just as we are starting to look like we could win a grand final.

This is exactly what we are all hoping, spot on imo


wouldn't be surprised if was wire, saints, leeds at the top next year, maybe wigan too, depends how they recruit, including who the coach is.

I would like to second this, mainly for one reason.......After watching Saturday's game with Wigan, I truly hope James Graham is lucky enough to leave Saints a winner.

He may have been one of the great panto villains of recent years with many opposition fans, but the guy really is a fantastic player and fabulous example to any youngsters watching the game.

I can only hope that he has a rotten time settling in Australia and quickly looks to return home, where Mr Moran whips out his cheque book and fetches him back to replace Adrian Morley....

Maybe proof at last, that as much as we might like to have mocked Saints for saying it,

they really are "World Class".

I do admire Saints, but I have to say that I don't enjoy watching them anymore. They used to be the team that I wanted to watch on a Friday night, but I don't enjoy their style now. Whether that changes with Graham departing I'm not sure, I think Roby would have to leave to force a real style change.

You have to have admiration for what they've done this year, they have a priceless ability for their younger players to just slot in & look the part in a non-showy sort of way. I think we're making strides on this, Evans & O'Brien for example whilst not getting the time they'd like looked the part sort of instantly.

What a nice thread! I honestly wouldn't be bothered if Saints won on Saturday as I have alot of respect for them. As mentioned be nice to see Graham bow out with a winners ring.

I wanted them to win last year; be nice if graham won something and the joke is good but 5 in a row is too much

I just wanted to say thanks to you guys for all your kind words. They are much appreciated. I must admit I was amazed you never got to OT this year but I guess these things happen. You got one round further than last year so Grand Final next year maybe.

The ludicrous playoff system screws the rightful and worthy champions out of what they worked so hard for and rightfully achieved throughout the season. You guys might not be my favourite club, but you play the game the way it should be played (the way Saints [iused[/i to play it), have been in a different class to everyone else week-in week-out and hopefully set the example for the way forward for everyone else to follow. God help the future of RL if everyone starts playing like Wigan instead...

I think our style is simply the result of having to keep things simple to facilitate (a) two rookie halves and (b) various rookies coming in and out of the team all season as a result of silly injury levels. Royce Simmons is reputed to coach open, attacking rugby and I know our Chairman is in favour of that style. Maybe we will have a chance to develop it more in the off season, with some stability in our ranks.

I gotta fess I felt for Wire fans last Friday night. That result must have come as a real shock. I was hoping Wire would make it through to the GF.

Delighted that Wigan didn't though!

I don't think Saints style now is any less interesting than the one they had from 2005-2008 when they were the dominant team under Daniel Anderson. The days when they were the great entertainers were back when they had Tommy Martyn and Anthony Sullivan striking from deep. When Saints were really at their best they used to play simple rugby, quick playtheballs, catch the opposition offside, penalty, kick to touch to get within striking range, then Cunningham or Scully go over for a crashover try.

It's much easier to play entertaining rugby when you are already 18 points to nil up.

I agree with that, I thought Daniel Anderson when he brought an emphasis shift and talked about 'enjoying defending' slowly eroded the off the cuff Saints style that Millward seemed to promote. Since then, during Potter's reign and now Simmons I've just felt they're quite dull to watch, not because I expect them to throw the ball around on their own 10m line or anything, just in that they don't seem to have any new plays in the last 5 years. It's always that sort of wraparound play that they used with Pryce or they hurt you when close to your line.

I think a lot of this is due to personnel, stick to what you're good at. When you have Roby, Meli, Graham etc that are all a threat close to the line, just get there and let them be effective.

I think James Graham leaving may force them to change style a tad. They might have to have more of a threat from deep, simply because their go forward may be easier to contain, time will tell.