I think he did well, usual GF performance from a referee who knows to let the game flow and not make himself the certain of attention, even Silverwood has accomplished this in the past. Whilst I wish they could perform with that type of performance weekly I appreciate that teams do clean up their acts in a final. Thought Wigan weren't too bad for their niggly stuff, sure some moments but not as bad as you often see from them.

I think the spectre of Flower last year did play a part in Wigan toning down some of their niggally nasty stuff,and that was to their detriment.

I felt sure that Farrell was far enough away from McGuire that he could have pulled out of landing on him. I regarded it as typical of the player. Having said that he was I thought far & away Wigan's best forward. Williams was a constant threat among the backs.

O 'loughlin was interviewed pretty much straight after the game. Wane had time to reflect and compose himself.

Mags had grounded the ball then Farrell ran 2-3 metres and then dropped on him. Totally deliberate $h1thouse cheap shot. I agree with Andy, thought he was trying to ride Mags into the boards head first.
Much like the vigorous facial massage the Wigan captain handed out to Danny in the last 10 minutes - weak and ultimately pointless.
Forget it now. Sure Mags has.

Wane had 12 months to reflect and compose himself before saying that Wigan won a "moral victory" last year with 12 men. If that's the best he can come up with after 12 months reflection I think he did pretty well to even mention Leeds last night.

I thought that prior to Wigan's first try when Burrow kicked through, that Bowen fumbled and lost the ball and that Farrell picked the ball up in an offside position?
It was IMO a penalty to Leeds
In that set Wigan scored with Burgess going over in the corner

Am i right or have i missed something?

From memory, I think the ruling was that Farrell had gone back behind the point where Bowen touched the ball, which gets him onside.

Back to back moral victorys. They are welcome to it. The caveman must be very proud.

Moral victory= a defeat.
Interesting take on morality when the main reason for your loss results in the offending player being suspended effectively for 6 months.
Not the morality I want to support.

Whilst the term moral victory might be the wrong words to use I understand what he's saying. For 78 minutes his 16 other players were the better side and defended amazingly. What Flower did shouldn't discredit what the other 16 guys did to try and win the trophy that night.

Same set but let's not let that ruin your line...

Might have been the ruling but he hadn't. Just watched the highlights, he was at no point goal line side of bowen

Sorry if posted elsewhere, but nice nice vid from Super League TV


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No,you are right.Farrell was a mile offside in the lead up to the Burgess try.I think Andy Gilder was confusing the knock on by Smith and offside by Tomkins (5 mins before the end of the match) which also didn't bring a penalty.

Just watched the game again, & without doubt my favourite image from the whole day is just after Walters' try, when all other Rhinos players are charging towards the congratulatory melee of players, there is a shot of JP & Sir Kev just ambling up arm in arm behind the rest.

I noticed that too their body language said it all

Just watching the win at Huddersfield again, the clips they kept cutting to of Wigan demolishing Cas at eh same time made me realise something. Prior to the Grand Final, we had two very tough matches, against Huddersfield and Saints, whilst Wigan had two easy rides, Cas playing for nothing, and Hudds in an actual play off game.

Did this contribute to our ability to finish the final much stronger than Wigan?

Won't have hurt us with hindsight. It would be meant Leeds were a bit more battle hardened, if you like.

It was something I think I'd talked about at work. Two easier games for Wigan won't have been the best preparation really.

Actually thought that when the Wigan players were on the pitch after the hooter had gone vs Hudds that it wasn't ideal to have such a stroll.

The huddersfield game was perfect for wigan. They just blew it in the final, but othing to do with that semi. It wasn't taxing, but it wasn't completly easy. They still had to play well to get the job done. Huddersfield can make someone a great grand final warm up team in the future, they will make some eventual grand final winners very happy, they provide that perfect combination of being kind of challenging so you aren't underdone but without taking anything out of the tank.

I think the moment Ryan Hall got his hands on the ball at Huddersfield in the last second we had been playing in a 'cup final' mentality and the game against St Helens being a brain slog we were already in a Grand Final mentality

See, now this is what Im talking about. We had the mentality Wigan didnt

It's RL IQ that Wigan lack - and it's lacking throughout the club.

Give over

Wigan's downfall IMO was due to the intensity levels of their past two games compared to ours