NRL Hall of Famer Sam Burgess is hoping the lessons learned with South Sydney can carry the Warrington Wolves side he coaches to victory in England's Super League grand final.
Burgess won the Clive Churchill Medal for his performance in the Rabbitohs' 2014 grand final victory over Canterbury-Bankstown, but recalls that success came after near-misses as Souths sought to beak a drought that extended back to 1971.
Warrington's wait for a league title goes back even longer, to 1955, and they have fallen agonisingly short in all four of their previous appearances in the season-ending showpiece.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t interested in trying to break the drought. It’s not been won here for 71 years and I’m aware of that," said Burgess.
“But as a player with Souths, we got to the prelims twice before we won it in 2014 and I felt like all that drought talk and the weight of expectation was heavy.
"It’s not heavy on us and I want to keep it that way.
“It’s more about this new group and creating our own piece of history, rather than being weighed down by the past.”
Burgess took over the Wire for the 2024 Super League season after a spell as assistant coach at Souths and under him Warrington have twice reached, and lost, the Challenge Cup final..
Their clash with Wakefield Trinity on Saturday (0300 Sunday AEST) will confirm a first-time winner for the second year in succession. It has captured the imagination of the sport, with a crowd in excess of 70,000 – the biggest in almost a decade – already guaranteed.
Warrington’s hard-fought semi-final win over Leeds was somewhat eclipsed by Wakefield’s performance the following night when they booked their place in their first grand final by obliterating Wigan 33-6.
And Burgess was the first to pay tribute to Trinity and his opposite number Daryl Powell, whose own side have to go back to 1968 to find the last time they lifted the domestic title.
“I congratulated Daryl and his team because I thought they were magnificent,” said Burgess. “We weren’t surprised, but I guess nobody expected that scoreline. When they’re hot, they can be very hot.”
Wakefield or Warrington are destined to become the second first-time winners of the event after Hull KR last year following almost three decades of dominance by the sport’s so-called ‘big four’ – Wigan, Leeds, St Helens and Bradford.
And Powell, who had brief spells with Balmain Tigers and Gold Coast Seagulls, believes the variety can only be good at a time when the sport’s governing body is locked in talks over a potentially lucrative investment from the NRL.
“I think there’s a freshness to it,” said Powell. “I don’t know if it’s changed anything, the good teams still have to be good teams, but the salary cap over a number of years has levelled things out slightly.
“You got Hull KR doing an unbelievable job last year and now you’ve got two teams who have got an opportunity to do something similar. That’s got to be exciting for the game, I think.”
With PA
