Liam Moore is the man in middle.

Same old moan but I just can’t see why the sport keeps putting itself in the position of having a Wiganer refereeing Wigan. It leaves him open to claims of bias or counter claims of him trying not to be biased. Let’s hope we don’t notice him anyway and there is no controversy.

I agree, but OTOH he did OK in the semi-final. But certainly, it's not a good look.

People moan about the ref being from a certain area. You know what you need to do then, apply to be a ref and change it then. As far as I am aware being picked for the final is a reward for having a good season. If we win on Saturday it’ll be down to the ref

Spot on. Only in RL could this happen. I actually think Moore has now gone too much the other way and Wigan seem to get a lot more decisions.

However given that Gausch said after the 21 GF that he wanted Australian refs and not English ones, the fact that the ref is from the same town as their opponents is quite laughable. You couldn’t make it up.

Conversely this could go against Wigan due to his comments. They just didn’t need to be in this position.

At one point Ganson was seen as the best ref but wasn’t allowed to referee Saints games. Not sure why things have changed. You’ve seen the furore it’s caused in football when Manchester based refs such as Anthony Taylor has refereed Utd games.

I personally think he’s got it because he’s been the best ref again this year, which is also why this will be his 3rd grand final in a row.
Ultimately the ref shouldn’t decide the game. Wigan have a job to do. It’s upto the team to get the job done.

We didn’t on Saturday when he missed an obvious offside. That error allowed HKR back into the match, albeit not for long.

It changed for Ganson as Saints kept making the final which ruled him (the best ref at the time) out of contention. They changed it and he reffed Saints in a final (which they lost).

You either accept they're impartial or you don't. If he's the best ref he should ref the final. Even if you do think they're biased, you could easily end up next season making the accusation that he's trying to ensure Wigan didn't make the final so that he could ref it.

I agree he is the best ref and by a distance. We also don't doubt players integrities when they play against teams they supported as a lad so why should we doubt refs. I get that 100%

However as I said, given the comments from Gausch after the 2021 GF then there could be a lot of controversy if there are any controversial decisions.

Lets hope no-one notices the ref and he has little influence on the result.

And a little off topic but couldn't find a relevant thread...

Lees wins his appeal, downgraded to a Grade A and fine only.

Williams appeal was deemed as frivolous and they've increased his ban from 1 to 2 games. The England captain, just before a Test Series. You couldn't make it up. Only in Rugby League.

You are right before a test series the Captain of England is banned then increased,no you couldnt make that up.
Only in our world of RL!!

It's got to be the same 17 as last week for me.

Two sides who want complete polar opposite styles of games. Catalans will want an attritional, stop-start game like at Magic and last week's semi. Whereas we'll want to keep the ball in play as much as possible.

The weather looks ok for the type of game we want so far (fingers crossed!). I can see us winning convincingly, but I've been wrong before.

Absolutely f%&^*&g baffling. Trying to build our national side to compete at the very highest level with a coaching setup that most have more confidence in than any other for a very long time, and our own game come up with absolute pelters like this. I'm not even 100% what the initial ban was for...if it was the late hit (where the passer was right at the line - top half play in my book) then it shouldn't have even been a penalty.

Be interesting to see how many times Lees has been called up by the Disciplinary this year.
Wrt Williams I think Smith and Lomax should be getting the nod for the forthcoming internationals.
Unless of course Lomax has been playing with an injury and needs an op again.
Looking forward to the game this Saturday and think you will edge it by 8.
Best 2 teams in the league over the season.

Turning to the game itself, what do we think?

Form and recent performances all push towards a 10 to 20 point semi comfortable win but I doubt that will be the case.

I fancy our chances providing we are disciplined both with and without the ball. I suspect Catalan will try and spoil a bit so we can’t fall for that tactic.

Best description would be cautiously optimistic but they are the worst ones when you end up losing.