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Wolves v Warriors Final - Result.


algy

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Watched the final last night and was bitterly disappointed with the result, the turning point for me was when Joel Monaghan was stretchered off Wires seem to lose momentum. In my opinion the better team won on the night, no shame in Warringtons performance though.

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Wire lost this match in the first half, ten points up on the pie eaters at HT is not enough when you've had the possession, bounce of the ball and the momentum. The Wigan try just before HT was a killer and give them something to hang on in there with. 
The second half was then a horror show, starved of possession due to giving away cheap penalties again & again and then on top of this , the major disruption caused by injuries and the fact we never really had the ball for many minutes.
Finals are very hard to reach but we need something left in the tank when we get there.

I see next season being a difficult year with the players we are losing and the lack of signings.

Bridge and Riley are just not doing the business this year maybe they need a fresh start elsewhere.

Hill,Ratchford and Grix were class and give hope for future campaigns.

But a lot of the rest were showing that the years are taking their inevitable toll.

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I think we ran out of subs towards the end & Father Time took its toll on some of our senior players & i think we did very well to keep Wigan to 30 given the personnel we had left on the pitch. I was very disappointed with the tackle that could have been career ending for Ratchford ,although i haven't watched it in replay .

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If you can stomach the memories all the pictures are now online

http://www.warrington-worldwide.co.uk/articles/16793/1/Wolves-suffer-Grand-Final-heartbreak-again/Page1.html

The turning point was certainly the turning point.

The Wolves not only lost their main try scorer, they also lost momentum with Wigan scoring straight from the re-start after a long delay.

The injury to Ratchford was a double whammy!

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Old Father Time finally caught up with some of the players.If there isn't an announcement soon of some quality players....replacing like with like I can envisage a real drop in demand for season tickets for next year. I wrongly assumed the club was playing it's cards close to it's chest and an announcement would be made after the Grand Final....seems I was wrong.

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I think we ran out of subs towards the end & Father Time took its toll on some of our senior players & i think we did very well to keep Wigan to 30 given the personnel we had left on the pitch. I was very disappointed with the tackle that could have been career ending for Ratchford ,although i haven't watched it in replay .

 

This was the big difference in the teams.  We lost Monas before 1/2 time, then lost Ratch to a cynical and cowardly tackle and then Harrison shortly afterwards.  We in effect were playing 14 men against 17, and this was always going to tell eventually

 

I'm proud of the lads fighting with their backs against the wall for so long and keeping a Wigan side who were on a roll down to 30 points.

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Old Father Time finally caught up with some of the players.If there isn't an announcement soon of some quality players....replacing like with like I can envisage a real drop in demand for season tickets for next year. I wrongly assumed the club was playing it's cards close to it's chest and an announcement would be made after the Grand Final....seems I was wrong.

 

 

Have faith - I'm sure they're waiting for the dust to settle before making any announcements, and Thursday's seem their favoured day in any event!

 

Mozza - replaced by Roy Asotasi

Cooper - Riley a decent replacement

Hodgson - Ratch a more than adequate replacement

Carvell - ???? Evans loaned to Bradford coming back but not a like for like

 

Williams & Tyke - no real loss there.

 

My big beef is with Riley, who I think has been poor this year and cost us a number of points and the weak link in the team.  Whether Penny will be any better remains to be seen, but I'm a big fan of Evans, but he just doesn't seem to get a look in with TS at the moment!

 

TS has brought us a long way in his time here, and I'm sure will continue to do so moving forward.

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I have been Wire through and through since 1947 but was disappointed at Westwood's failed attempt to take Green out of the game  early on - with one eye for 78 minutes he was still their playmaker. Westwood will know his punishment tomorrow. Later, Cooper let us down on discipline as well. As was shown in the first half we had the experience to out smart the much younger Wigan side but when all interchanges had gone in the second half our energy levels were expended on constant tackling with lack of possession in face of  a 2 - 7 penalty count. All this hype about having not won a Championship since 1955 annoys me - whatever they want to call it we smashed Halifax at Leeds when Les Boyd was man of the match and if that doesn't count why was Les in Sat's programme as a Harry Sunderland man of the match winner ?

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I'm afraid to say the guy who cost Warrington the game was the Head of Coaching Tony Smith - Leading 16-2 with three minutes left to the break Warrington got a kickable penalty.

Lee Briers signalled for the two but Tony waived it away and insisted (as usual) on running the ball and going for four points - Bridge was pushed out in touch on second tackle - Wigan got the ball back - came up field - Monaghan injured in tackle, long delay and Wigan score straight from the re-start just before half time.

If Warrington had taken the penalty and eaten up the clock to half time Warrington would have gone in 18-2 up and Wigan would have been completely demoralised and probably down and out.

This is not the first time Tony Smith has got it wrong on not going for the two in a tough game - If memory serves me right the same happened in the cup semi-final defeat to Hull.

In tight games you need to take points at every opportunity - rugby is not all about throwing the ball around with gay abandon!

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I'm afraid to say the guy who cost Warrington the game was the Head of Coaching Tony Smith - Leading 16-2 with three minutes left to the break Warrington got a kickable penalty.

Lee Briers signalled for the two but Tony waived it away and insisted (as usual) on running the ball and going for four points - Bridge was pushed out in touch on second tackle - Wigan got the ball back - came up field - Monaghan injured in tackle, long delay and Wigan score straight from the re-start just before half time.

If Warrington had taken the penalty and eaten up the clock to half time Warrington would have gone in 18-2 up and Wigan would have been completely demoralised and probably down and out.

This is not the first time Tony Smith has got it wrong on not going for the two in a tough game - If memory serves me right the same happened in the cup semi-final defeat to Hull.

In tight games you need to take points at every opportunity - rugby is not all about throwing the ball around with gay abandon!

 

 

Can't agree with this.  We've done similar many times this year and got 6 points rather than 2.  I know it's all ifs and buts, but if we'd have scored again that would have been 22-2 at half time and no way back for Wigan from there.

 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing..........

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Can't agree with this.  We've done similar many times this year and got 6 points rather than 2.  I know it's all ifs and buts, but if we'd have scored again that would have been 22-2 at half time and no way back for Wigan from there.

 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing..........

All well and good on some occasions - but not in tight games- cost us a return to Wembley and a Grand Final victory.

There are occasions a team should take the two - and Warrington never do!

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This was the big difference in the teams.  We lost Monas before 1/2 time, then lost Ratch to a cynical and cowardly tackle and then Harrison shortly afterwards.  We in effect were playing 14 men against 17, and this was always going to tell eventually

 

I'm proud of the lads fighting with their backs against the wall for so long and keeping a Wigan side who were on a roll down to 30 points.

 

According to the Guardian and Tony Smith, our injuries during the game were even worse! 

 

Stefan Ratchford, Simon Grix and Ben Harrison all require operations, Richie Myler needs a scan on his ankle and Garreth Carvell needs to recouperate from a broken rib.

 

Harrison & Ratchford went off at the same time, leaving us with just 14 players available from the 51st minute onwards, and one of them was Carvell who was nursing a fractured rib!

 

Ratchford is in need of an operation because his injury was quite severe, with one ankle being seriously damaged and in need of surgery and whilst the other one is also injured it can be rehabilitated.

 

Simon Grix is also awaiting an elbow operation, and along with Ben Westwood required stitches to a head wound immediately after the final.

 

All in all, I think we can be extremely proud of the effort the guys put in considering the adversities the team faced.  Makes me very proud of the guys 

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I seem to remember thinking when Richards took the early penalty goal how important it could be ,but history says it was purely academic.

 

 

I thought the complete opposite to be honest - I think it showed their lack of ambition to try and score a try.  I remember in the Cup Final against Leeds when Sinfield also kicked a penalty in the 1st half, I thought the exact same thing.  Later in the game, when we could have gone for goal, we chose to run it and got 6 points and went on the run out comfortable winners.

 

It's just one of those things that happen in finals - who knows what would have happened if we'd have kicked for goal.  As I said earlier, hindsight is a wonderful thing!

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