Headliner Hastings is Devils’ big Steel!

IT has been 43 years since Salford last won a league title.

Their ascent through the play-offs this year was only the club’s second ever appearance in the end of season knock-out stages.

Amid financial instability off the field, the Red Devils have formed a consistent, quality team on it, capable of defying pre-season expectations for a relegation battle to find themselves in the showpiece event at Old Trafford.

Between them and glory stands a St Helens side that finished top of the competition by a record 16 points in the regular season. One that has won 14 league titles, seven in the Super League era. A team full of internationals and NRL experience.

Yet this Salford have proven themselves to be greater than the sum of their parts.

Handpicked by coach Ian Watson, the so-called ‘Misfits’ have arrived from clubs where they were undervalued and unappreciated and bought into the Red Devils’ vision and ethos, demonstrating that if they work hard for each other, they can achieve together.

The headline act is Jackson Hastings. After tonight’s Grand Final, he’ll join Wigan as a Marquee Player and reigning Steve Prescott Man of Steel.

Yet when he arrived at the AJ Bell Stadium, he’d been ostracised from the NRL and was facing up to the fact his career may be over at just 22.

“He’s deserved everything he’s got this year,” said Watson. “He came across under a big cloud and the way he’s been as a person on and off the field has been a credit to himself.

“He’s done this, he’s rebuilt himself and hopefully he keeps working on that and stays on that track so that, as he grows up and goes further in his career, he can achieve whatever he wants to achieve.”

Hastings will be partnered in the halves tonight by Tui Lolohea, the Tonga international half-back that arrived to much fanfare at Leeds in pre-season, but was quickly made a scape