Warrington as a club have made amazing strides in the past few years.

After the initial disappointment has subsided i am now very proud of our team, what they have achieved and the manner in which they have done it. not to mention the positive impact and contribution to the community as a whole.

This brings me to saints, in the superleague era they have been incredible, 6 grand finals on the bounce, yes they have lost most, but they have done it chopping and changing teams and making do.

These last two years they have massively over achieved with players who are on paper, either too old, too young or made of biscuits.

I WANT THEIR CULTURE AT MY CLUB.

They have a mentality that you have to applaud, how do we go about fostering that, and creating that culture at our club?

It takes years and it's not just something you can click your fingers and say we'll have that.

You first need to win titles which creates that no excuses winning culture in the dressing room.

For years saints had the best squad, they don't have that so much now but because they had so much success the players from those teams gradually transfer it across to the younger players.

It's not something you can put your finger on, it's within the cub.

They are still the best club in SL for producing and promoting quality young players into their first team.

by a mile.

forgot to put this in my post.

Incredible what they have done this year. Yes a lot of it was forced but the quality youngsters they have have coped admirably and grown up very quickly.

Also i realise we can't just 'have' that culture, but by god i admire it.

I know Saints are one of our big rivals but I quite like them. I've liked the way they've played rugby in the SL era, I repsect their success, I admire their youth set-up, and I really like some of their players like Roby (probably my favourite RL player!) Wilkin (classy player) and Wellens (big City fan and genuinly top bloke!).

Don't get me wrong, I'd rather Wire beat Saints than most other clubs, but that's not through a hatred of them.

agree with all of this.

Hate getting beat by them more than any other club, but have nothing but respect for them, and the way they go about their business.

it was also noticeable the contrast in reactions to our loss on friday by the wigan and saints fans. i will always want wire to pan saints but at the
same time i have a lot more respect for their supporters than those hypocritical to$$ers at the piedome.

What showed to me was this years results... They've hammered us throughout SL and never failed to remind us. But as we turned the tables this year, they took the defeats graciously and that earned a lot of respect from me unlike that classless lot from up the M6.

whilst i agree with the two points made.

i'd rather not even mention wigan, i meant the thread as a show of respect to saints.

nowt to do with wigoon

Thanks from a Saints fan.

Most Saints fans do have a lot of time for Warrington. Your style of play easy on the eye and reminds us of past Saints teams. In an age of hit ups and competion rates it is always good to have a team that plays rugby. Regarding our run against you lot, it was only such an achievement because you are a good side and we kept on picking your pocket. If you were Salford we wouldn't have been that bothered.

Regarding the culture that has been down to a lot of luck. If you had kept Harris and Scully in the 90's you could have easily had our success and once you are at the top you just have to keep things going.

Best of luck in 2012.

Great posts and I would like to say thank you for the comments.

Wire have been the best team this season and are a pleasure to watch,always said RL fan first and to watch how Wire play the game is a credit to the sport,good luck next season guys,except against us.

Agree with all of the above comments. Absolute class team who I have alot of respect for.

A winning culture.

I seem to remember sometime last season in an interview with Tony Smith, he wanted to model the team into an open rugby style similar to Saints, I think he has achieved that. The team is a pleasure to watch in full flow and hopefully will rub off on other teams as well, the tactics of Huddersfield last Year and Wigan this year is anti rugby and is probably a turn off for the neutral supporter.
As you aware there is still work to be done on the knock out rugby side of things mentally, once that gets sorted out it filters down to the u/20 and u/18 teams, then I suppose the winning attitude becomes part of the Wire DNA.

Maybe we should have a joint day where you impart your knowledge and winning culture.

We could of course help you out with strength, conditioning and keeping a healthy squad

Good to see a bit of mutual respect between two sets of fans instead of the sheer hatred that was put on this Board on Friday night. Best of luck to Saints on Saturday.

Wire seem to be bringing youth through at long last, that will stand you in good stead. 2011 has saw Saints rattle up a very big injury list, which meant the young guns had to get stuck in, they have, and have done themselves , their families and the fans proud. End result is a gig in the grand final. Royce Simmons said "I have learned something myself from this club, its their mentality, their culture to want to win, they dont talk about 2nd place" ( words to that effect ).... Wire spent a long time looking at its best 17 and forgetting anyone else outside of it. You now have a very good squad indeed and young guns coming through, the stadium, a bigger fan base, tasted glory with the 2 CC's and the hubcap this year.

Its all going in the right direction for your club, and who knows once you reach a GF you could be stringing together a run of 6 on the row like saints ?

Still can't believe we have made it to OT again.Suppose we were "fortunate" to play a Wigan side twice who had been mashed by you and were inevitably fatigued at the end of a long season.Warrington's squad is very strong and I am sure you will finish top or thereabouts next season

A winning culture can't be taught or trained.
It comes from...well....winning!!!!

Warrington have began on their path to this winning culture but it is still early days.
The 2 challenge cups and the league leaders shield this year will only help breed the right mentality into the club.
Being in the running for the grand final and the challenge cup every year will motivate the players to focus on their rugby both on and off the pitch and that in turn will feed down to the youth players coming through.

In years gone by, the attitude of the players has not been as focused and having a good time off the pitch was maybe sometimes more important than the hard work on the pitch. This would have fed down to the younger players who look up to the first team and try to emulate them.

There is no doubt now that the team is focused and very professional in all aspects, and we will benefit from this for years to come as the youngsters come through.

Next season, this team will believe that they can win everything and the loss against Leeds on Friday will only make them stronger and the lessons learned from it will help us in the same situation in 12 months time.

The problem we have now is that a lot of our leaders are coming to ther end of their careers. We will go through a transition period just as we are starting to look like we could win a grand final.

This is exactly what we are all hoping, spot on imo


wouldn't be surprised if was wire, saints, leeds at the top next year, maybe wigan too, depends how they recruit, including who the coach is.

I would like to second this, mainly for one reason.......After watching Saturday's game with Wigan, I truly hope James Graham is lucky enough to leave Saints a winner.

He may have been one of the great panto villains of recent years with many opposition fans, but the guy really is a fantastic player and fabulous example to any youngsters watching the game.

I can only hope that he has a rotten time settling in Australia and quickly looks to return home, where Mr Moran whips out his cheque book and fetches him back to replace Adrian Morley....

Maybe proof at last, that as much as we might like to have mocked Saints for saying it,

they really are "World Class".

I do admire Saints, but I have to say that I don't enjoy watching them anymore. They used to be the team that I wanted to watch on a Friday night, but I don't enjoy their style now. Whether that changes with Graham departing I'm not sure, I think Roby would have to leave to force a real style change.

You have to have admiration for what they've done this year, they have a priceless ability for their younger players to just slot in & look the part in a non-showy sort of way. I think we're making strides on this, Evans & O'Brien for example whilst not getting the time they'd like looked the part sort of instantly.

What a nice thread! I honestly wouldn't be bothered if Saints won on Saturday as I have alot of respect for them. As mentioned be nice to see Graham bow out with a winners ring.

I wanted them to win last year; be nice if graham won something and the joke is good but 5 in a row is too much

I just wanted to say thanks to you guys for all your kind words. They are much appreciated. I must admit I was amazed you never got to OT this year but I guess these things happen. You got one round further than last year so Grand Final next year maybe.