Former England captain Jamie Peacock looks back on Wigan’s impressive finish as they claim top spot for the second year running – the first time in their Betfred Super League history
Former England captain Jamie Peacock looks back on Wigan’s impressive finish as they claim top spot for the second year running – the first time in their Betfred Super League history Former England captain Jamie Peacock looks back on Wigan’s impressive finish as they claim top spot for the second year running – the first time in their Betfred Super League history
Congratulations Wigan for winning the Betfred League Leaders’ Shield two years in a row.
That is a huge achievement for them: being consistently the best side for the last 24 months. But also, in being the consistently best, they’ve been the team above all others in being able to raise their game and intensity for the big matches. They’ve got both sides of that sorted.
You just can’t argue with the levels of consistency they have had. It comes from a fantastic coach in Matt Peet who clearly gets it. He gets the best out of his players but they have also got a really deep squad and that stems from the work they’re doing in the academy. They have that ‘next man up’ attitude.
However, they have recruited exceptionally well over the last two years, too, and have Kris Radlinski at the back who orchestrates all that. They’re the reasons and it deserves merit given how highly competitive the league is as a salary-capped competition. There was a lot of talk about Salford playing a so-called second team for that game at Wigan on Thursday.
Wigan’s Kruise Leeming lifts the League Leaders’ Shield after beating Salford
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But I’ve always been of the view that it’s the coach’s squad and he can do what he wants with it. If he wants to rest players, he can. The idea is to have your players fit and ready for the ones that are most important and that’s what Paul Rowley’s decided with Salford: he wants them firing next week. But, at the end of the day, if we weren’t playing 40 games per year we wouldn’t have to do any of that.
Obviously, whenever the League Leaders’ Shield is mentioned I can’t help but think of 2015 and Ryan Hall scorching down the touchline after Danny McGuire’s chip at over Huddersfield. The greater context for us with Leeds that night was it kept the dream of the Treble alive and it probably remains the stand-out moment for finishing top of Super League.
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