Warrington Wolves will attempt to end a 70-year wait for a league title when they face Wakefield Trinity in Saturday's Super League Grand Final at Old Trafford. The match presents two potential fairytale endings, with Wakefield hunting a first major trophy since 1968 after being in the Championship only two years ago.
A statistic shared widely on social media notes that of all European towns and cities with a population over 200,000, only two lack a professional football team – and both are represented in this final. Warrington's last league title came in 1955, making their drought the longest-running joke in rugby league, while Wakefield are appearing in their maiden Grand Final.
Pain of Past Defeats Drives Warrington
Warrington have reached the Grand Final four times previously without success, and that history fuels their motivation. Warrington-born hooker Danny Walker said: "It pisses me off. It's always been part and parcel of playing for Warrington and it's up to us to shut people up and stop that song being sung."
Walker has experienced defeat at Old Trafford both as a spectator and on the pitch. "I still live locally and, even this week, we've had people stopping us, telling us what it would mean to them," he said. "There's people that have been going for 70 years and never seen it. We know what it means. You don't have to worry about that."
He added: "I've been stood on the Wembley pitch as a loser, watching another team win the Challenge Cup and I've been in the stands enough times at Old Trafford watching us lose. I've been to three of the four, including in 2018 just after I'd signed for the club. It's an exciting week, but I know what it feels like to lose here."
Williams and Burgess Eye Redemption
George Williams, who won everything at Wigan before returning from the NRL to join Warrington five years ago, now has a final chance to deliver on his promise of a Super League title. "I've been there before and won it, but I've never wanted to win a game as much in my life," he said. "I was bold enough to say it back then and I'll stand on my word. The goal has never changed over the last five years. We've missed the mark at times, but now we've got this opportunity."
Head coach Sam Burgess faced an internal review last year after an eighth-placed finish, but has turned the club's fortunes around. He drew parallels to his playing days with South Sydney Rabbitohs, who ended a 43-year title drought. "It was one of the most appetising things about the job," he said. "I'd be lying if I wasn't very interested in breaking the drought when I took the job."
Burgess has consulted his mentor Wayne Bennett in the run-up to the final, but has insisted all year that the weight of history does not burden his side. Saturday's match will reveal whether that holds true.
