Warrington coach Steve Price has revealed how brutal honesty was behind the Wolves’ positive reaction to their Wembley heartbreak.
Price’s side were beaten 20-14 by underdogs Catalans in the Challenge Cup final, and history has shown that teams often struggle to regroup in the closing weeks of the Super League season.
But the Wolves responded quickly with an 80-point demolition of Hull, and after securing their semi-final place, then stunned League Leaders St Helens to reach the Grand Final.
Price explained: “When we came back together on the Tuesday that week it was a pretty heavy video session.
“I could feel in the room how much people cared about their team-mates and the club, and I always felt that we’d get a response.
“But you just don’t know until you do, and it’s a credit to the playing group how they responded.
“Wembley was a performance that we certainly weren’t proud of – we addressed it with some really brutal sessions.
“I thought we built into the back end of the season really nicely and played some hard, gritty football, and that typified the display last Thursday against a quality team like St Helens.
“We’re going to need another hard-nosed performance on Saturday to beat a quality football team.”
Aussie Price admits he also turned the spotlight on himself in the aftermath of that Challenge Cup final defeat.
He added: “You’ve got to be really genuine about yourself too, and there was things I wasn’t happy about with myself too.
“There were certain things within how we played and it was important that we address that.
“Sometimes in life people don’t like hearing what they need to hear and you’ve got to be really truthful.
“I’m super proud of the guys for being able to get where they are now.
“But come Saturday it’s still going to take a special performance.”
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