Hard graft is the reason for Grand season
Salford Red Devils captain’s exclusive column ahead of today’s Grand Final
WHAT a season we’ve had, I can’t wait to be finishing it off with a Grand Final at Old Trafford.
This team has come a long way together.
At the start of the year, we were training really well, but we weren’t going out on the field the way we trained. People were trying to solve things on their own and going away from the gameplan.
On reflection, it probably was the defeat at St Helens in May that changed everything. We thought to ourselves, ‘What are we doing? We’ve just bought in and nearly beat the out-and-out league leaders,’ so we knew that was what we had to do.
Off the back of that, we’ve learned a lot of lessons – what to do best and what suits us best as a team.
One thing that keeps coming up is the idea of hard work. In rugby league, if you keep working hard, you’ll generally get your reward.
You might make a mistake, but if you’re willing to get up and make the next tackle, carry the ball, cover for your mates, you’ll always have a good game.
For whatever reason, over the last three months we’ve always had 17 blokes who are willing to do that. No one has dipped below a seven out of 10 performance level and in a team sport, that’s what you need and it’s got us where we are – in a Grand Final at Old Trafford.
We learned from our previous mistakes against Wigan to beat them and we’ll have to do the same against St Helens, who have been fantastic all year. When we played them back in May, we were winning by 10 points with eight minutes to go but we just shut up shop too early and it came back to bite us. We spoke about that after the game and realised we can’t do that against the top sides.
The way we’re playing isn’t really high risk, it’s all about that hard work – pushing with each other, tightening on the inside, third man tackles – the little gritty things that spectators might not notice, but as a player are really important for you.
I’m delighted to be going back to Old Trafford with this group.
When I won the Grand Final with Wigan, I was a very small cog in the machine. I did my hard work, but I was surrounded by class players who could win a game on their own.
At Salford, we’ve got a lot of blokes who are very similar and our success is based on everybody buying in and 17 guys bringing their best on the field every week.
It was very special to win in 2013 and when I was sat in the stands the year after with my shoulder injury, I promised myself I’d never miss another one.
Luckily, I got to win again with Wigan in 2016, but to be here now after the tough few years with injuries and to lead this team out, I think it will be that bit more special.