24 Aug: Coral Challenge Cup Final: St Helens v Warrington Wolves KO 3pm (BBC)

[Oxford]

8 hours ago, fieldofclothofgold said:

This all makes the run in to the Grand Final very interesting .Will Saints pick themselves up ? Can Wire kick on ? Oh and look who's waiting in the wings quietly??? Weegin weegin weegin.  Now both saints and Wire have a monkey to remove I`E Bottler tag and winning the CC doesnt make it your year and you know it 

Winning the CC almost certainly does make it your year !

So does winning the league leaders trophy! (Needs a Better Title that one)

And also the GF!

So far it's been Saint's and the Wolves' years .... I wonder if it'll be someone else's year too?

[Leeds Wire]

Nothing but positives from me, given an unexpectedly awesome performance from the Wire; bright sunshine all weekend; plus great banter on the half way line of the north stand between fans from all corners of the RL world. How the players served up that level of intensity and entertainment in that heat is beyond my comprehension. Hats off to all of them.

I was so proud of our team yesterday, more so than the previous Wembley victories due to the stature and talent of the opposition, a disrupted line-up and our form going into the game.

Philbin was immense, Patton came of age and Clark was ridiculously good. Bring a fit Widdop into that team alongside Austin and I think we are just a centre short of being a consistently competitive side. 

Respect to the Saints fans I came across, they were a credit to their club. Loads of Hull fans around too who were clearly intent on enjoying their day. I didn't hear a cross word all day by anyone. 

Even a nightmare five and a half hour drive back to Leeds today was made easy by listening to Test Match Special. That's another crazy story. 

Anyway, what an unforgettable weekend! 

 

[fieldofclothofgold]

41 minutes ago, Oxford said:

Winning the CC almost certainly does make it your year !

So does winning the league leaders trophy! (Needs a Better Title that one)

And also the GF!

So far it's been Saint's and the Wolves' years .... I wonder if it'll be someone else's year too?

When Wire said " our year" for a good few years now they meant the GF  they've not one GF ,not a championship final since 1954 .its their holy grail . Although it is the fans who have got the our year monkey on their backs 

[latchford albion]

3 minutes ago, fieldofclothofgold said:

When Wire said " our year" for a good few years now they meant the GF  they've not one GF ,not a championship final since 1954 .its their holy grail . Although it is the fans who have got the our year monkey on their backs 

True.

[Denton Rovers RLFC]

9 hours ago, Teessidewire said:

What did he say about the Lineham one?

Unsurprisingly absolutely squat!

[JonM]

51 minutes ago, Leeds Wire said:

Respect to the Saints fans I came across, they were a credit to their club. Loads of Hull fans around too who were clearly intent on enjoying their day. I didn't hear a cross word all day by anyone. 

For all the pre-match talk about the dangers of having Wire, Saints & Widnes fans in the same place, drinking in the sun, it all seemed very good-natured yesterday - not heard of any trouble at all.

[Cheshire Setter]

1 hour ago, Leeds Wire said:

Bring a fit Widdop into that team alongside Austin and I think we are just a centre short of being a consistently competitive side.

I think we’re doing ourselves an injustice if we call ourselves ‘inconsistent’.   10 finals in 10 years winning 4 suggests we are ‘almost’ there,  but we really need that big GF win to put us up there with Wigan, Leeds and Saints.    At least we have this bridesmaids tag off our back with a proper good-old grind-out style performance, which is what we’ll need to repeat in the future if we make another GF soon.   Hopefully that will then start us on a run of winning more finals than we lose.

[Cheshire Setter]

1 hour ago, fieldofclothofgold said:

When Wire said " our year" for a good few years now they meant the GF  they've not one GF

I want to find an argument for that one, but you’re right.   Once that elusive GF win comes though I feel it’ll spur us on.

Although it may be true that this victory doesn’t change a thing regarding our GF record, the manner of the win and the boost in confidence after a run of recent narrow final losses can only help.   As others have stated that performance yesterday was one typical of a big Saturday night in October.   I’m hoping it’s the first of many.

[Liverpool Rover]

It was a compelling game. Warringtons forwards were the difference and won the battle up front. Saints tried to be more expansive but where in a league game a lot of passes would have stuck yesterday they didn't. The Taia non try and the Philbin try not long after was a key moment in the game, I thought that Taia had the ball ripped out and I was thinking that I would be the only one to to think that the Grace knock on was actually a Warrington one

[Loiner]

18 minutes ago, Liverpool Rover said:

It was a compelling game. Warringtons forwards were the difference and won the battle up front. Saints tried to be more expansive but where in a league game a lot of passes would have stuck yesterday they didn't. The Taia non try and the Philbin try not long after was a key moment in the game, I thought that Taia had the ball ripped out and I was thinking that I would be the only one to to think that the Grace knock on was actually a Warrington one

Might have been so different if Walmsley, Coote and Roby had played.

[gillmeister]

45 minutes ago, Liverpool Rover said:

It was a compelling game. Warringtons forwards were the difference and won the battle up front. Saints tried to be more expansive but where in a league game a lot of passes would have stuck yesterday they didn't. The Taia non try and the Philbin try not long after was a key moment in the game, I thought that Taia had the ball ripped out and I was thinking that I would be the only one to to think that the Grace knock on was actually a Warrington one

If we start adjudicating that as a ball steal the games gone. The onus needs to go back on the players to start respecting the ball and keeping it in there possession rather than them expecting to be bailed out by penalties after loose carries. 

[Just Browny]

3 hours ago, fieldofclothofgold said:

When Wire said " our year" for a good few years now they meant the GF  they've not one GF ,not a championship final since 1954 .its their holy grail . Although it is the fans who have got the our year monkey on their backs 

No Warrington fan has ever referred to "our year", besides perhaps Wendall.

[redjonn]

As neutrals we like to see the underdogs win, that's because the underdogs normally lose. No matter the coach. the media or whatever is said prior to the game. Its just that when the underdog lose we don't hear a bleep about how they or coach  used that to motivate themselves. They had the inner confidence that top performers normally have plus the determination and desire.

As I've said before it was a really good performance from Warrington, they always seemed to have the better energy. How they managed to keep going in the heat shows how fit they must be.

Saints were disappointing after the 25 min mark... but then I saw them make many errors against Leeds in the game before Wembley so I guess shouldn't have been surprised - I did say in the pre-game discussion that they are prone to make errors but then normally put together a fluent number of exciting plays when the ball sticks and run away with a game.  Unfortunately for Saints it didn't happen and the errors kept popping up as they had to chase the game. I guess they don't normally have to chase the game. Plus Warrington kept them under tremendous pressure.

Maybe Saints squad rotation was just a little too much plus banking on players being able to immediate be match fit after injury. 

[fieldofclothofgold]

2 hours ago, Cheshire Setter said:

I want to find an argument for that one, but you’re right.   Once that elusive GF win comes though I feel it’ll spur us on.

Although it may be true that this victory doesn’t change a thing regarding our GF record, the manner of the win and the boost in confidence after a run of recent narrow final losses can only help.   As others have stated that performance yesterday was one typical of a big Saturday night in October.   I’m hoping it’s the first of many.

Great performance and that's why I brought up this subject ,it makes the rest of the season all the more intriguing 

[fieldofclothofgold]

25 minutes ago, Just Browny said:

No Warrington fan has ever referred to "our year", besides perhaps Wendall.

But it's still with you and that's what sets up the rest of the season 

[Oxford]

I must admit I'm very impressed with how well the Saints have taken their loss.

[Dave T]

9 hours ago, Just Browny said:

No Warrington fan has ever referred to "our year", besides perhaps Wendall.

Indeed. It's always been a funny one, Wire fans are generally pessimistic based on the history and success of our neighbours I'd say, it's what makes things like Saturday so special and seeing the responses because we arent respecting our 'place'. 

The always your yearvthing came on the back of us being pundits favourites for a few years but never winning the GF.

Personally I'm comfortable calling the last decade a bit of a golden period, while some other clubs have a rather pathetic trophy haul.

[Dave T]

4 hours ago, Oxford said:

I must admit I'm very impressed with how well the Saints have taken their loss.

You wanna look at my Facebook stream then

This board is generally the more moderate fans so we have a good lot here.

[Padge]

5 hours ago, Oxford said:

I must admit I'm very impressed with how well the Saints have taken their loss.

Most have done their usual go away and hide until the dust settles or go on to RedV to spit bile where they hope nobody will notice.

[Padge]

1 hour ago, Dave T said:

Indeed. It's always been a funny one, Wire fans are generally pessimistic based on the history and success of our neighbours I'd say, it's what makes things like Saturday so special and seeing the responses because we arent respecting our 'place'. 

The always your yearvthing came on the back of us being pundits favourites for a few years but never winning the GF.

Personally I'm comfortable calling the last decade a bit of a golden period, while some other clubs have a rather pathetic trophy haul.

Warrington have been the quite achievers of the last 10 years,  6 Challenge Cup finals including 4 Challenge Cup wins and 4 Grand Final appearances is no mean feat.

[Old Frightful]

1 minute ago, Padge said:

Warrington have been the quite achievers of the last 10 years,  6 Challenge Cup finals including 4 Challenge Cup wins and 4 Grand Final appearances is no mean feat.

Quite.

[Bod]

11 hours ago, gillmeister said:

If we start adjudicating that as a ball steal the games gone. The onus needs to go back on the players to start respecting the ball and keeping it in there possession rather than them expecting to be bailed out by penalties after loose carries. 

It was clearly a ball steal. Saints were not at the races but Hicks and VR has made three glaring game changing errors.

[Padge]

Saints shop have introduced a new T-Shirt to add to their collection.

[Cheshire Setter]

Considering the lack of build up to the cup final around Warrington (understandable with the form and recent finals history) it is great to see this cup homecoming on a sunny bank holiday:

 

[Cheshire Setter]

They are saying the homecoming crowd has equalled the estimated 100,000 who attended in 2009...   Shame we couldn't get them all to Wembley 

Great to see though and the one thing that the Challenge Cup does better than the Grand Final - a summer after-party...