Quote Damo-Leeds="Damo-Leeds"That element of suprise won't be here this season because everyone always gets themselves up for the defending champions. I just don’t think this Wigan side will able to grind it out'"
They do, however Wigan have no also lost the pressure on themselves of not having won a trophy for a long time. That was huge on us last year especially after losing at Leeds in the cup and at home to Saints, Warrington, Huddersfield and Leeds (play offs) during the second half of last year. Many people said we'd bottle it come the crunch but we actually went to Leeds and won comfortably and beat Saints pretty well in the final. How did we do that? By grinding it out when it mattered.
Quote Damo-Leeds="Damo-Leeds"
I just don’t think this Wigan side will able to grind it out because this Wigan Squad is pretty much the same as it was under Brian Nobel bar a few player changes.'"
Not sure what that has to do with anything. Noble massively under-achieved here at Wigan. 6th place in 2009 (especially in hindsight after 2010) was a disgraceful return. The difference between his era and us now is vast. Our standards won't slip back. I think we proved that last at Warrington. We wern't that good in attack but in defence we were all over Warrington and 24-18 was a bit flattering in the end for Wire.
As for whether we'll win this year - I think our massive squad depth will see us retain first place. The Grand Final is all down to the performance of the day itself.
Quote Damo-Leeds="LewisJ23"Funny thing is I think they'll lose in Cardiff.'"
On this weeks results I can't see it. They'll have to improve a hell of a lot defensively from their two pre season displays so far. But we'll see.