I predict Matty Smith to have the game of his life on Saturday.
Dumped by his beloved Saints to a Salford club in freefall (pre Koucash), much like we did with Sean Long to Widnes all those years back.

Like Long, I can see Matty being 'up for this' like no other against his former boyhood club. Long always raised his game against us in Finals.

The stage is set for him and he'd be my strongest bet for the Harry Sunderland Trophy.

BTW - I don't think the game will be as easy as some non-wigan supporting fans have suggested with scorelines suggesting Wigan to blow Saints away.

Two words:

Remember Murrayfield.

The game could go either way. Saints have nothing to lose and that makes them very dangerous. They've struggled to match our aggression and intensity in games recently but that shouldn't be a problem in a final.

As for Smith he's in a good place at the moment. He looks like a guy on a mission to take another step in his career and play for England. I remember him playing for them in 2010 and they never really have him the platform to damage us. Hopefully we can buy him some space on Saturday and if we do he'll guide us around the field. I'd be looking for him to turn Wellens time and again and really get his ageing legs working overtime.

Wigan will not turn up to a Grand Final underestimating the opposition. Wigan will not turn up to a Wigan vs Saints derby not wanting a scrap. I'd be very surprised if Wigan lose.

But we're not a patch on that Saints side either in truth so there isn't as huge a difference IMO.

Lms and wellens

I agree with that BUT i was trying to make a point that Saints don't have any weapons outside of Roby.

We will match them for intensity but who will win it for them?

Roby is exceptional and by streets their best player but they do still have other guys who can hurt you. We're setting ourselves up for a fall if we think it's just a case of hammering Roby to get the job done. The intensity needs to be the same as it was on Friday, if it is then we win but it's not guaranteed.

As for who those other danger men are Manu is a handful, I like Percival, Turner can be as good as he can be bad, Makinson and Swift are both dangerous players and even Wellens can still produce some good moments. They also have a big pack with some form players in there like LMS (we can joke but he's playing very well) and Masoe (same as LMS).

It's the halves were our big advantage is.

Thankfully it's not the windy buggers who post on here who will be playing!!!! If anybody here thinks that the Wigan players will be complacent, you really need to give your head a shake...

Imo, Roby aside, all of the players you mentioned are bettered by their Wigan equivalent. Guys like Percival & Makinson have been bettered at every level in the big games vs Wigan. I don't think it's setting ourselves up for a fail having extreme confidence in the talent that we have. Our young players are better than theirs, they've proved this in the past & our senior guys like Lockers are also better.

FWIW i don't think it's going to be a white wash. I do however think that if we nullify Roby then we stop Saints. I'm praying that we tap into that old Madge mentality of pure aggression in defence. I really want to see Micky Mac, Lockers, Joel, Bateman etc really get into Roby and LMS early doors.

If we bring our nastiest defence & 100% intensity then we will win this game.

its Wigan vs Saints. form goes out of the window in these encounters.
smith makes us tick, so i hope he has a good game, because when he doesnt we dont.
we should win, as we have the momentum, but this one should be close.

Fully agree we're better across the field and I'm confident we'll get the job done. I just wouldn't put all our eggs in the smashing Roby basket.

Let's smash the lot of them!!

worked when MM smashed Cunningham out of the game in the last GF between the 2

We hammered them from 1-17. We need to do the same again.

Why do we not have a chant for Matty Smith????????????? Given his claim about been lucky to have signed a four year deal with us then winning the Wigan lotto followed by a Tax rebate I would like to suggest:-
First my apologies to KYLIE MINOGUE

Matty Smith is lucky--- Lucky--- lucky--- lucky. Matty Smith's our lucky 7