Fair play to Saints, they had a dig but they're not the team they were.

Wellens looks like a rabbit in the headlights every time hes interviewed.

Great game to watch. Obviously, the Wigan in my blood wanted Saints to lose but when it got to golden point i was quite contented with us maybe playing them after such an effort but when Williams kicked the drop goal, the Wigan in me came surging to the surface and i couldn't help but start cheering and shouting 'F*ck off Saints' at the telly.

Firstly, wow what a game! I wish somebody with vision and financial backing could get a grip on the sport in this country because I'm a sports fanatic and there is nothing better than that!

As for Saints, you have to give them credit. Tonight is why I could never write them off. The play offs are a new comp and they have so much know how. They never get battered in a play off game and you have to nail down the coffin firmly. They're not the side they were quite clearly. Guys like Walmsley and Lomax look close to being done but they nearly squeezed through. I think Leigh likely give us a tougher game next week tbh because of what that will have taken out of Saints.

I think that's true. We'd have been cooked next week if we'd have gone through I think. We looked completely finished towards the end of that game, couldn't believe we managed to get over for the last try. Unfortunately, that GP period was poorly managed with some poor play from players that were clearly out on their feet

great game!!,Saints are in the past tense now they need new blood etc.
St Helens in the past would have found a way to win,said it 2 years ago with the players getting older and more prone to injuries they would struggle,Wigan are the more superior team now,In the club,players and the set up.

I didnt see last night's game, as a neutral (of sorts) do you think tonight was reffed differently to the regular season? No yellows and I think only one high tackle seemed surprising.

I was at the game so it felt different during.

Well Liam Moore didn't seem to care about the ruck speed but thats the same every game he's in charge of.

I thought it was reffed really well and well done the players, zero histrionics, I can only recall one bog standard lazy high tackle from Walmsley, penalty sufficient, play on.

Good exciting game but the quality wasn't the best. Error rate and number of missed tackles show that. Wire will need to be 3 levels above that to cause KR problems

There wasn't anything really of note tonight that would've been adjudicated differently in the weekly rounds but last night saw Lafai not even penalised for a challenge very similar to the one which Vaughan got a red card and 3 games for only a few weeks ago. Now I'm glad it seems like they may give more leeway but all the same, that causes confusion.

One thing that did make me chuckle last night was Amor laying in to Darnell Macintosh for staying down. He was on Comms when Welsby stayed down at Leigh last week and funnily enough, he didn't seem concerned with it then.

Saints got away with murder at times at the ruck it was that slow, but fair play to them if they can get away with it why not?

We did similar against Penrith in the WCC and Penrith didn’t adapt to it, just like last night Warrington didn’t adapt to that element of the game and how it was reffed on the night.

It's funny how people see things differently. Last night showed exactly why I've been saying all season that they weren't our main threat. Even with the majority of their players back and putting in the best performance of their season they still weren't good enough against the team that finished 3rd. Kudos to Saints for managing to put in a season's best performance when it mattered most but when that performance is yet another loss I think it says everything about where they currently are.

Saints were never our main threat in 2024 as they weren't in 2023. This "never write off the Saints" needs binning alongside "The Entertainers" tag. Neither are correct any more.

They'll be back. I have no doubt about that whatsoever. Whether that will be next season or not remains to be seen but there was never any doubt in my mind that it wasn't going to be this year and that proved to be spot on.

I agree, looking at that team sheet it was a strong one. Maybe they need to realise they aren't that great anymore, majority of their senior players are the wrong side of thirty and not getting any younger. Also I'm not sure any of their announced signings will change any of that.

Big few years for Saints management, will they come strong again quickly (history says they normally do) or will they go the other way like Leeds are doing with a decade in the wilderness. Both teams have a strong youth system in place (Saints arguably better than Leeds lately) and getting this right is paramount.

I think their backline is much improved going into 2025.

Forwards are very much in transition though and I’m not sure that issue can be resolved in one offseason.

But the way some people spoke going in to the play offs was as though they were going to be easy beats. It took a huge effort from Warrington to squeeze past them, in golden point. They're not the side they were, we all acknowledge that but they were always going to be extremely hard to beat in any play off tie. They've got to rebuild but I can't help respect them for being able to be extremely competitive, make play offs etc even at their worst. I'm happy to enjoy our success, while giving them that respect,which is world's away from what some of their fans could bring themselves to do during the 4 on the spin.

Exactly - it wasn't that people thought they would win it - just that they couldn't be written off in a three match play off series. Combine the experience of Saints with Warrington's history of screwing it up in the big games and it's no surprise it was close yesterday.

INOUT
I can't speak for anyone who said they would be easy beats. I certainly never said that. I have, however, consistently said they weren't our biggest threat when many people, yourself being one of them, were trotting out the "when they get their players back" line. Well, they got players back and still went out at the first hurdle. I simply don't get this deference for them based on what they've been in the past. All that matters when discussing their potential threat is what they are in the here and now and, in the here and now, they barely scraped into the 6 and were dumped out of the playoffs at the first attempt. Plucky losers is not, and was never going to be, our biggest threat as many were trying to suggest.

This is not to gloat, demean their past achievements or to suggest they won't be challenging at the top end of the table in the future. I am merely pointing out that one plucky loss doesn't, and shouldn't, change the narrative of where they stand at this present time. In fact I only mentioned it at all when you said that this one plucky loss somehow confirmed that you were right not to write them off. What it actually shows is they managed to raise their game for a one off performance that still wasn't good enough to progress any further than the first round!

Finishing 80 minutes from being 80 minutes from being 80 minutes from a trophy does not a biggest threat make.

No team can be written off in any game. That's a long way short of being "our biggest threat" as many people were saying in those exact words. The 3 remaining teams are a bigger threat than they were which is why they're in the semis.

In fairness to myself, I always put the stipulation on them being our biggest threat of them having all their players back fit and firing and they didn't have that. Hurrell out, Sironen out, Mybe out and others not looking fully fit. All excuses really but they were always going to need to get to a position of having all those guys and having built up some momentum in the last few weeks of the season. I said last week after Leigh that it looked unlikely that they could end up being that biggest threat to us but their performance level yesterday was well in advance of even where I thought they could get to pre game.

Maybe on my part it's a mental block with them, which refused to let me think they're done for (in the short term). We've had spells in the Superleague era of turning up for derbies knowing they're going to absolutely batter us and they have. We haven't had that, they pretty much always give us a hard game. When a side 'always' makes the play offs, even in their worst seasons, I think that just makes me extremely wary of them and I thought yesterday showed exactly why. Very few clubs could've played as they have this season and then turned up like that yesterday, regardless of the fact they got pipped by a Golden point drop goal.

I'm glad they're out anyway

Saints were never going to beat Wire Away, then Wigan Away then Hull KR in the final.

Bilko put a great comment on Twitter saying Saints had lost the last 11 out of 12 games against their Top Five opponents (and then only winning against Salford in golden point).

I'm convinced we'd have beaten them on Good Friday had we not been down to twelve men, despite their good start to the season.

Saints are the 6th best team this year and was proven by not getting past the first hurdle.
They wouldnt have beaten us in the semi I am sure of that if they had won that.
St Helens just arn't that good anymore,they will bounce back at some point but now they are not that good.

50 missed tackles Saints had on Saturday. Warrington had their worst performance of the season and still had enough to scrape through. I think they will upset KR on Friday I know they can't play any worse than Saturday

Intriguing game on Friday, Rovers have to be clear favourites with being at home in front of that vociferous crowd.

But you never know.

The 'mental block' is probably what I'm alluding to. I don't really get it but then I've probably been around long enough to know reputations count for very little in the here and now. One of the most successful teams in the Superleague era have, for the last decade, plied their trade in the 1st division, another has spent years trying to get past no longer having their 'Golden Generation' and a third has allowed the sentiment for their 4-peat champions cloud their succession planning. I've purposely included Saints among that group because I think that's where they currently belong. As I no longer fear Bradford (obviously ) or regard Leeds as genuine title contenders, so it is currently with Saints. Reputations are for the history books.

That's not to say all 3, including Bradford, won't have their say again. I'm sure they will. It was just never going to be this year for any of them.

One final point. Had Saints won I could have understood the "I was right not to write them off" stance. That would have made sense. But they lost. That, to me at least, doesn't.

Both scratch on sky bet any one of them can win.