Death by Suffocation

Saturday night's Grand Final saw Wigan defeat Hull KR by 9-2 to retain their Super League title, to win four trophies in one season and to win six consecutive available trophies.

The Era of Dynasties

It is now fair to say that we are in a Wigan dynasty. And that has started on the back of a St Helens dynasty that saw them win four Super League titles, three League Leaders' Shields, one Challenge Cup and one World Club Challenge.

If you watched Saturday night's Grand Final, you may have been forgiven for thinking that Sky Sports had simply re-run the 2023 Grand Final, such was its similarities. The game played out in a near identical manner. Even the scoreline was similar (10-2 in 2023 v 9-2 in 2024).

How Wigan Became Immortals

So, how did Wigan win it? The obvious answer is Bevan French's brilliance, combined with a precision kicking game from Harry Smith.

I would argue that the biggest contributor was defensive steel. Wigan have now gone four full matches without conceding a try. They have prevented their opponents from scoring a try in the last two Grand Finals. That doesn't happen by accident.

A standard Rugby League try line is 68 metres in length. We have seen how wingers only need an inch of that 68 metres to score. To prevent a side from crossing that 68 metre line in 80 minutes is impressive. To do that four times in a row and in consecutive Grand Finals is incredible.

It requires lots of skills. The first is trust. No single player can cover the entire 68 metres. It relies on each of the 13 to do their job. To be in the right position, to be strong enough to match your opposite number. And to trust that the man next to you will do his job.

The next is focus. Just one lapse in concentration from just one player is enough to have that 68 metre line breached. You cannot get bored of doing the hard work.

You also need fitness. To repeat that effort hundreds of times per game without fatigue eventually wearing you down. 

Wigan's fitness is remarkable. HIA assessment for Junior Nsemba aside, Wigan did not make a substitution until the second half. Luke Thompson and Ethan Havard put in monstrous opening shifts. Yet by full time, Hull KR looked fatigued and Wigan looked like they could quite easily play another 80 minutes. 

I could have written the exact same thing about St Helens under Kristian Woolf a few years ago. They played in a very similar style to this Wigan side. Their fans dubbed it "Woolfball". Wigan ended that St Helens dynasty by becoming better at the style of play that St Helens made their own.

This style might not be as pretty on the eye as a dazzling passing move or an offload based game. However, it requires arguably even greater skill and discipline to execute so well.

Replicating Woolfball

In the last two Grand Finals, both Catalans and Hull KR have tried to beat Wigan by being Wigan. Both failed and, really, you never truly felt at any point that either were going to win.

Even outside of the direct challengers, Warrington have tried similar this year. You can see the renewed focus that Sam Burgess has brought to Warrington's defence, which was the best over the course of 27 rounds. This focus especially apparent after an error strewn loss against Wigan in the Challenge Cup Final.

That begs the question, what do Wigan have that these sides that try to emulate them do not? The answer is Bevan French. A mercurial player who is good for a moment of mind-boggling brilliance seemingly every match. A piece of speed, skill or evasion that leaves even the best defences grabbing at air. It would be unfair not to mention the best field-kicker in the competition, Harry Smith, here too.

To take it back a step further, what differential did St Helens have during their dynasty? They had an incredible line speed which penned opponents in their own half combined with a monster of a pack that would camp on an opponent's line until it broke.

By comparison, whilst Catalans in 2023 and Hull KR in 2024 both proved themselves to be competent in the "death by suffocation" methods employed successfully by Wigan and St Helens, they lacked that final piece of the jigsaw to bring it altogether.

I would also argue that whilst Catalans and Hull KR were competent at this method, St Helens and Wigan were / are exceptional at it.

The Brick Wall

Grand Finals are often quite cagey but they seem to be getting cagier still. I'll give you some facts:

- In three of the last five Grand Finals, the winning side has only scored one try.
- In the last 11 Grand Finals, the losing side has scored more than one try on just two occasions.

It used to be the case that if you conceded two tries in a Grand Final you would very rarely win. Wigan have raised the bar yet further. Now, if you concede a single try in the Grand Final, it becomes very difficult to win.

In my opinion, we have not had an entertaining Grand Final since 2015. Some will disagree and point to the 2020 Grand Final between Wigan and St Helens. Yet in my view that was largely two sides cancelling each other out and shadow-boxing for 78 minutes and the game as a whole has been romanticised due to the incredible Jack Welsby winner.

And perhaps that outlook is slightly harsh on the 2021 Grand Final between Catalans and St Helens, which was gripping in parts.

No side taking part in a Grand Final should care whether it is entertaining or not. The combatants are there to win. Nothing else matters. 

Yet to the wider game, entertainment does matter. The Grand Final is our biggest showpiece but the 80 minutes are often too cagey to be entertaining. I would go as far as to say Saturday's match was dour from a neutral perspective, save for the moment of French magic.

The fact that conceding two tries will essentially kill your chances of winning, perhaps even one try now has led to this state of affairs.

More Grand Finals than not in the last five years have seen the winning team score only one try. This leads to teams becoming more risk averse and sticking to their process rather than trying to ice an opportunity.

Situational factors add to this. If you kick the ball dead in goal your opponent gets a seven tackle set now. Combine this with a tiny in goal area at Old Trafford and quite often a wet surface, you simply get teams either putting in a repetitive high kick and hoping for an error or running the ball in to maintain a territorial advantage.

Put all of this together and the approaching decade-long trend of turgid Grand Finals starts to make sense.

A New Style?

The question for the 11 Super League sides who will seek to dethrone Wigan next year is how to go about that. Do they do what Wigan did to dethrone St Helens and try and replicate their game and become better than them at it? Or do they have the confidence to develop their own style?

I would understand why teams have reservations about the latter. Because it rarely works. The last two teams to try a more attacking style and challenge for the title were Castleford in 2017 and St Helens in 2018.

Both won the League Leaders' Shield. Castleford were fortunate to win their semi final (they did so despite being outscored by five tries to three) and were humbled in the Grand Final.

Meanwhile, St Helens' laissez-faire attitude to defence in 2018 came back to bite them as a season of dominance counted for little when they suffered league and cup semi final defeats.

With big-game defence as strong as Wigan's, such a carefree attitude may simply play into their hands. You saw that in the Challenge Cup Final where Warrington tried to be expansive but crippled their chances of winning through errors.

Though you could argue trying to match their style when they are the best at it plays in to Wigan's hands too.

In big games, Wigan have shown an ability to soak up pressure like a sponge and then punish you. They had limited pressure on Hull KR's line on Saturday. But they didn't need that to win. The same was true in their World Club Challenge win over Penrith.

A brick-wall defence combined with a clinical attack is a lethal combination. And Wigan have managed to strike that balance.

Once upon a time, some teams had the attitude of "you score 30, we'll score 40". The best teams now have an attitude of "we'll score 1, you'll score 0".

The challenge for the rest of Super League in 2025 is to meet that challenge and break free of the suffocation that Wigan can employ with such devastating effect.

If the last two years has taught us anything, that is easier said than done.

But everything seems unstoppable until it's not. I've seen many takes saying how seeing Wigan halted looks impossible.

We were all saying the same about Leeds when they won five titles in six years. And about St Helens a couple of years ago. In 2021, by contrast, Wigan seemed a way off winning a title. How times change.

This era too will not last forever. For Wigan fans, every second of this glorious era should be savoured whilst it does.