Factually you’re favourites, so that’s how we stand. We’ll see on Percival but Hopoate and Makinson will make a huge difference. You only need to look at the Magic game to see what Hopoate can bring. Will he get injured again? Maybe but maybe Field and French both pull up with hamstring tears again.

Ultimately it matters little if you claim your not favourites or I claim you are. There is pressure on you guys to win the Grand Final and the whole club will be devastated if you don’t send Woolf out with another. I don’t think the pressure is quite as heavy on us due to the cup win but it’s still there and by the same token, Tommy Leuluai retiring has added some on top.

Don’t take it personal Stu. As far as I can see, you ain’t one of the fans who at the start of the season we’re saying you’d already won it. 3/4 in row is a massive achievement and saints have my respect for that but like it was said earlier some saints fans have built up in there head that the team you have are invincible and it’s very easy to wind people up with this view. When it goes tits up this is what happens. If it was any other team including our own the view would be the same. Probably slightly more intense with it being saints haha

Instead of being a smart a**e actually read my post in full. Since Wigan beat us last week, there has been a bit of a sea change. Some journalists are now saying that Wigan are the team to beat, they have the blue print to beat us etc. Others are also saying that Salford could go all the way.

A few months ago it was a foregone conclusion that Saints would win it. I don't think it is anymore. We do look a bit busted and fatigued and this could be one Final too far. That's not just my opinion nor a Saints opinion.

This 'always the victim' mentality amongst some fans is plain weird. The extent of the resentment is equally weird. Seen comments online saying boycott the semi-final and final, one wants the chairman to write to all of the fans to explain the decision, some saying they're done with the sport altogether...

Good god.

Hardly surprising when Wigan are involved. Its a massive conspiracy against every other team...

They need to make the final for starters but presuming they do, there has been one winner in ten years from the team getting the extra days rest. Add in the fact you can’t blame Sky for wanting to show the Entertainers on the Friday night and it’s an absolute molehill job.

Its not so much the extra 15 hours rest its the fact that people naturally presumed that we would be playing first given we finished top. They would've made arrangements around that fact and now some can't attend the Saturday game.

Our crowd will take a hit and even if we don't suffer financially (due to gate receipts being evenly split) I'm not sure how that affects hospitality. Whether you agree or not we have been penalised for having our own stadium and Sky have done the RFL a huge favour by making life easier for them in choosing Wigan.

If people were making arrangements without knowing the date of the fixture they’re crackers and more fool them. Sky get the pick, it isn’t set in stone that first place plays on the Friday and whilst this selection may have been done to avoid issues, nobody knows that for sure. As for the crowd being impacted, again it’ll be hard to tell but say you play Leeds, fans not having to travel over the M62 on a Friday night won’t hurt you.

As I say it’s molehill stuff but the whole narrative around the St Helens fan base at the moment seems to be driving their desire to win things by making out everything (including luck) and everyone is against them. I don’t think you’ll need them because I think you’ll win a 4th title on the trot but it’s the classic ‘get your excuses in early’ stuff.

Well you (Saints) haven't
As is being point out time and time again on redcesspit but conveniently being ignored, there wasn't a guarantee this year that the team finishing top would get the Friday game
Pretending there was is, and using the rhetoric above (penalised for having your own stadium ) is just what the previous poster said.
Blame culture
Victim mentality
Arrogance

Whatever

Yourself Stu try to play the straight down the middle card on numerous threads, but your not, and we can all se it

Not sure how I'd find this out but I'd hazard a guess that over the last 10 years the team finishing top has played first on significantly more occasions than the team finishing 2nd. If I'm wrong I'll happily hold my hands up.

Depends which topic

If its this one then your expressing opinion, and dressing it up as fact
You weren't guaranteed the first semi final, that is Fact
Your coming up with hypothetical to male it sound like your being penalised, when your not
Your using rhetoric such as penalised when you haven't been, FACT

He never said they hadn't

If you forget the hyperbole and the echo chamber ramblings and look at simple facts it may help

Sky have always had the right to the play offs so decided to televise the League leaders game first (and I'll assume on every occasion)
This year they are sharing the rights with CH4 and decide which game they want to show Friday night, the league leader DOES NOT have the right to the Friday game, FACT

Or maybe...just maybe...Sky wanted to show the likely most competitive game (2nd v highest placed qualifier) rather than 1st v lowest place and there's actually nothing more to it than that.

Why is everything some conspiracy against Saints? Just look how many games Wigan have had moved including this Friday and 2 in this last month!

It's not as if the semi has even been moved anyway. You're just up in arms because you thought you might play first!

Well given I haven't used the word "fact" in my post then I'm not sure how you come to that conclusion. Thanks for putting it in capitals by the way as I wouldn't have understood it without it being in capitals.

However to humour you I will clarify that the above is in my opinion. We'll never know if Sky were always going to choose Wigan regardless of the stadium situation.

So I will add (and this is in my OPINION) that I think that Sky have done the RFL a huge favour by their decision to avoid Wigan having to find somewhere else to play and all the problems that would bring.