Grand Finals are where history is made – and there are plenty of ways the record books could be rewritten when St Helens and Leeds Rhinos face off on Saturday night at Old Trafford.
Club records
For both sides, there is the chance to be the most successful side in Grand Final history. Both are tied on eight wins (only Wigan Warriors (five) and Bradford Bulls (three) have won any) and one team will grab the record outright.
St Helens hold the record for Super League titles with nine, having won the first in 1996 before the Grand Final’s introduction, but Leeds can draw level with victory.
For Saints there is also the opportunity to hold the longest streak of wins in Super League history, as they seek a fourth successive title to move clear of Leeds’ three in a row between 2007 and 2009 (all by beating St Helens in the Grand Final).
If they did secure four titles in a row, it would also be the second-longest period of dominance in the history of the British game, behind only Wigan’s run of seven league wins (1989-90 to 1995-96).
Individual records
St Helens captain James Roby will equal Jamie Peacock’s record of eleven Grand Final appearances if he plays, while he could also win the Harry Sunderland Trophy for a record third time (having become the oldest ever winner when he picked up the prize in 2020).
Roby also has the chance, along with teammate Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Leeds’ Matt Prior, to be the oldest try-scorer in a Grand Final.
His coach Kristian Woolf can also make some history as the first coach to win three Grand Finals in succession.
Brian McClennan (2008 and 2009) and Brian McDermott (2011 and 2012) are the only other bosses to have won two years running, both with Leeds.
Global supremacy
Leeds’ Prior is one of three players looking to secure a notable global feat by joining the list of players to win Grand Finals in both hemispheres, having won the NRL Grand Final twice with St George Illawarra Dragons in 2010 and Cronulla Sharks in 2016.
The other two are the Rhinos’ Zane Tetevano, who won the NRL decider in 2018 with Sydney Roosters, and St Helens’ Will Hopoate who was part of the victorious Manly Sea Eagles team in 2011.
This double has been achieved previously by 14 players, 13 of them overseas and only one of them British – Adrian Morley, who won with Sydney Roosters in 2002 and Bradford Bulls in 2005.
Family history
Jarrod O’Connor has the chance to follow in his father Terry O’Connor’s footsteps as a Grand Final winner.
Terry won with Wigan in the inaugural Old Trafford showpiece in 1998, playing against Leeds who Jarrod will aim to win with this year.
The only previous father and son winners are Jason Robinson (1998) and Lewis Tierney (2016), both with Wigan.
Meanwhile Rohan Smith could follow his uncle Tony Smith (2004 and 2007) in winning a Grand Final, and do so with the same club in Leeds.
