JonB95 wrote:
Is the lack of passion down to the coach or the players themselves? Bowen has never played in a Saints-Wigan before and he looked more fired up than any of our homegrown players. Brown needs to realise that treating Good Friday as 'just another 2 points' is a huge mistake.
It's bigger than that, it's the whole culture of the club that needs to improve if we're ever going to win a trophy again. With Wigan it isn't the players as they can virtually all change and they play the same. It's not Wane particularly as all he's doing it continuing the cynical, ultra aggressive gameplan Maguire started. Although Maguire added a lot to it, Wigan's way has always been there. They are, as a club, more committed to success than we are, more committed to preparation, more committed to training and it shows on the field.
Our culture is someway behind Wigan's. It's always been about attacking rugby and exciting the crowd. We suffered a lot over the last 7 years as consecutive coaches tried to change that and the rugby by numbers approach felt out of place, it just wasn't Saints. Our period of success in SL came when we had players who were superior in skill and athletic ability than the opposition, combined with a 'never beaten' attitude. We don't have the first of those now.
Wigan's superior attitude and culture would quite well stem from them being fully professional decades before everyone else. But it's not something we'll be able to catch up with over the short term, it'll take a long time for us to match them or Leeds.
