The other factor in Dodd’s downturn in form is that Lomax has been a shadow of his former self.

Interestingly, the crowd for the GF was only 2,500 less than Saints v Leeds got the year before and a massive 13,000 more than the Saints v Catalans generated in 2021. Well done the guys and gals from Wigan, still the biggest draw in RL.

Lomax and Dodds downturns may also because the Saints pack have lost the big advantage they had.
Roby was coming to an end Walmsley didn't look as dominant last season and this one seemed even more past his peak at his best he was worth two forwards or more, LMS also couldn't feed off his dominance, Pasi injured back end who was looking their best forward and even the yards Perci and Tommy make don't look so damaging now. Obviously they put a lot into the start of season but looked like a old boxer on the ropes who's had a few to many fights, although still hanging in with the chance of landing a good punch. Maybe a good long off season will see them refreshed but it does feel like it's the end of an era maybe.

Bit weird to be trying to use the 2021 final as a feather in your cap when travel restrictions meant Catalan couldn’t bring as much as they could have and many people were still very wary about leaving their homes and going to mass gatherings etc. you also had 58k more than the 2020 final, impressive!

58k is a decent enough crowd tbf. Could have been worse. I would however expect a fairly decent following when it’s your first final in 5 years and your fans are by and large confident of a win. I do think last year’s crowd was pretty poor too, tho I don’t think it held much intrigue as a contest and fair weather saints fans were probably a bit blase about it by then and I doubt many neutrals would have wanted go for what was always very likely to be yet another saints victory.

Would have been interested to see what the crowd would have been for a Wigan v Saints final this year though. Really think the rivalry, positivity around Wigan, nervousness about the result from both sides, neutral intrigue etc could have led to the biggest crowd for a long time. Ah well. Maybe next year!

Fwiw even as a Saints fan I’m fairly happy you won. Not personally perse, but I’m fairly happy that the negative tactics of us and Catalan came unstuck this year and the title went to a team playing good rugby all season. Could really do with the game moving on from some of the turgid displays put on in big games the last few years

Exactly. Not sure why he is trying to point score here, really poor comparison. We also went to Wembley that year so lots of expense from Saints fans going there too.

As you say Covid was still prevalent in 2021 and lots were still wary of attending sporting events.

Not trying to score points pal just quoting facts. How many do you think Catalans brought last Saturday? I am afraid that you have just put a bunch of excuses forward as to why Saints fans didn’t travel. Personally, I would have liked a full house and probably the only way that can happen is a Wigan v Saints final.

This is nothing to do with points scoring it is a fact you can choose to like or not. For some reason it irks you, and I am surprised that you are so tetchy Stu given the facts speak for themselves. An increase of 13,000 is is a big difference irrespective of whether Saints fans were worried about the effects of catching a cold in 2021, anyway let’s treat 2021 as an outer and ignore it. Given that you want, for some reason, to argue against the facts and accuse me of ‘points scoring’, when that was not my intention, the crowd in 2022 does not look great when compared to Saturday’s attendance. You cannot use the excuse of the CC Final last season as (remember it was Wigan v Huddersfield in the final), and COVID was a relevantly distant memory, so what was it?


Like it or not, Wigan are the biggest name in the game. Although I do agree that Wigan v Saints is the biggest tie in the game.

I’ve never denied Wigan are the biggest name in the game.

I don’t know why last years attendance was poor, I can only suggest that some stayed away because they felt the result was a foregone conclusion.

However the attendance for the 2019 GF was 64,000 so 6,000 more than Saturday. Now unless you’re going to tell me Salford brought 30,000 that’s a hell of an attendance don’t you think?

It was a good attendance but I can tell you that Salford had considerably more fans at OT than Catalans. I’m not sure why you Saints fans are so touchy, my post was about a fact not a dig at Saints. You guys want to make an argument about anything it reminds me of Utd and City prior to the last 10 years or so, small team mentality syndrome but neither Saints or City fall into that category. I can only assume that the hatred of Saints fans is far deeper than I thought and most are not honest enough to acknowledge it.

Clinging on for dear life the saints fans. They dominated the covid era of the sport and are all panicking now.

I think we should just be pleased with a decent attendance, All credit to the Wigan fans (and I was one of them), but we needed a good crowd, and we got it. And there were a lot more Cats fans than I expected. Some of them even spoke French!

Has there been any update on Havard ?
Did he take himself off because he felt his hamstring tightening or did it go altogether again ?

Looks to be a good programme on at 8:30 on channel 4 tomorrow.

Behind the scenes of the GF