THERE were three things that I thought were quite remarkable about Saturday’s Super League Grand Final.
One was the attendance of 58,137, which was only around 2,500 fewer than the attendance for last year’s Grand Final between St Helens and Leeds Rhinos.
Wigan obviously brought a lot of supporters and that reflected the revival of the club over the last two years under the inspiring leadership of their coach Matty Peet.
Two years ago, when Catalans played St Helens at Old Trafford, the attendance was 45,177 and some people were expecting a somewhat similar crowd on Saturday. But the sales team, both at the RFL and at Wigan, did a great job in drawing 13,000 more than that figure.
The second thing was that Wigan prevented the Dragons from scoring a try. In fact they never looked like coming close. It was a remarkable tribute to Wigan’s rearguard and to their defence coach Sean O’Loughlin, who clearly has a big future, whether at Wigan or elsewhere.
It’s the first time since the Grand Final was inaugurated in 1998 that any competing team has failed to score a try.
The third thing, which will seem trivial by comparison, but which I think should be recorded, is that the Wigan coach, right at the end of his post-match press conference, made a short speech thanking the media for its coverage of Rugby League in 2023.
There may be other coaches who have done that, but if so I can’t immediately recall them, and it tells you a lot about Peet himself and the Wigan club in the current era.
Because Wigan are so successful, many fans from other clubs claim to hate them, which probably isn’t genuine hate but envy of Wigan’s success.
But the fact is that Wigan’s success has been built on the back of a wonderful value system – or culture, as we should perhaps call it.
I would like to have a bet that the most modest employee of the club, whether it’s a tea lady or just someone who carries the bags or opens the mail, feels just as much part of their victory as the 17 players who wore the cherry and white on Saturday.
And that is the true meaning of success for any organisation.
