The reason I ask the question is we have, a Cup Final Shirt, a Cup Final Song, Cup Final suits for the players. Constant talk of "ending that song" & Radders picking his team unusually early.

ATEOD it is just 80 minutes of rugby, nothing more, nothing less. I'm not privy to Wire's build up, but it seems a lot has gone in to making it an occasion. I have faith in Radford, I've paid the £49 to buy the shirt I may only wear once, but something about not treating it as "Just another game" worries me.


Though I hope I'm wrong.

I doubt it. We'll probably lose but I still think we'll put in a decent performance

I remember Leeds going into a cup match i think with pink hair for a cancer charity, it was enough of a distraction for them to be absolutely god-awful. They were laughing and joking and totally unfocussed and lost the gae in the first 15-20minutes.
We don't need 'gimmicks', we don't need a 'have to put past wrongs right and win at wembley' ethos or any other mantra. We just need execute the game plan, don't panic, play to our strengths, keep them under the cosh and aim to hit your 5 or 10 minute targets.

I'd rather it be an underwhelming build up than one with all the bunting but ATEOTD if we win then it's all irrelevant, if we get kiboshed in the first 20min, play catch up rugby and lose then questions could be asked about mental preparation. We could of course come from behind, win, smash the wembley hoo-doo, get totally out of hand delerious in celebration and still question our mental preparation.

Minute one focus and no silly penalties and I think we'll be alright

Paranoia.

Cup final shirts are often stitched with the match details.

The players have had nothing to do with the 'remix' of the song.

All clubs issue clothes to their sqaud.

Radders has fielded the inevitable questions about our Wembley history.

Most coaches select their team a ferw days before a game.

SPot on

This. Nail on the head.

All of those things are either not unusual or nothing to do with the playing squad. Hope they're on social media ban for next few days, we're a much better squad than in 2013 and have shown much better attitude through the season across the squad. I don't get some fans acting like beating Wire is simply a formality but that won't mean much to the playing squad, they know they have to be at their best.

People always say this kind of thing but all that is being done in the end is that the fans are being revved up by all these little bits of build up and anticipation. Can only help to create an even more intense atmosphere in the stadium, really give it a party atmosphere which will hopefully rev up the players even more as well.

We'll win or we'll get beat.
It'll be nowt to do with being mentaliy unprepared or lacking focus.
Give it our best shot like every team probably has contesting a Wembley final with our fair share of lady luck and it'll hopefully be enough to get us over the line.

The whole point of picking the team early was to take the uncertainty out of it all and to enable those not picked to have their role in the week identified and to have all that settled early. good move for me! It looks like the waving off is been kept low key and the week in training to Thursday is identical to their now settled weekly preparations. Looking back on some other Wembley's this has all been pretty low key for me.

This thread is just one part of the pre-Wembley build up & ritual. The usual process is something like:

Win the semi:

- Mad rush for tickets: questions about which end we'll be in, who is buying from the club/RFL, queues at the club shop, which blocks to sit in etc
- Getting to Wembley: Train, car, where to park, how long does it take, how much is the tube, can we use contactless cards etc
- London/Wembley: Pre-match pub questions, where is everyone staying, where is everyone meeting up, what time to get to Wembley for etc

Then, once all the arrangements have been made:
- Paranoia
- Over-analysis / over-thinking (this thread)
- Reasons we might lose. Superstitions.

The only thing we have left in the next few days to go through are the rumours that x player is carrying an injury and is a doubt for the final.


I'm guilty of pretty much all the above myself. It's just part of the build up and excitement for what is a huge game/occasion.

I think you missed re-living passed glories in there....
Already watched all this years cup games again and the 2005 ones!!
(obviously not the 2013 final!!)

.... and can you get match programmes at a later date?

They is a link to that on the wire board I think

+1

My confidence comes from how our team has miles better quality players than it had last time.

Crookes/Crooks/Miller/Arundel as against Michaels/Talanoa/Sneyd/Fonua as an example (and that's before considering our dominant forward pack).

It doesn't mean we'll win but as WIZEB says we'll be giving it a great shot like we have for the majority of the year. If we come up short then we still have much to play for rather than it being the usual be all and end all of just getting there. I'm certain that whatever happens this team wont give anything less than their best. All the hype around it wont matter one bit come the first whistle.

Absolutely mate, we have a shot and what will be will be.
Don't get me wrong, I'm as desperate as the rest of us for a win but life will go on regardless.
I wanna be buzzing down in the hotel disco early on Sunday morning not wrapped up under the duvet in my cot, with the rattle thrown out by 8pm on Saturday evening. lol:

To be honest I think it's been remarkably low key as far as the club goes. Not a peep out of them until the Catalans game had gone and even now it's only just starting to gather momentum on social media.

All a deliberate low-key approach, I'd expect nothing less from Radford. The focus was on securing that semi-final. All CC talk was quashed pretty quickly.

The club will get maximum publicity from this weeks build-up (after all, we have 2017 passes to sell and a GF and CC final will bring untold benefits).

I would imagine the club will get someone like Luke Campbell to present the team with their shirts and I would seriously get Motu, Swain and Kearney to give that pre-match talk.
In my opinion, the fans should be creating the hype, not the club.

You could point to Warrington getting a former England football captain to present their shirts, plus Ashton Sims was on BBC News and Radio Five Live this morning, no-one from Hull FC. Warrington being closer to Salford than Hull, presumably the reason.

Tut tut tut, BBC is supposed to be an impartial organisation...

Normally nervous thinking if we play to our potential, have some luck, they play poorly we are in with a chance of winning.
This year I think differently, we have a great side who play for each other. If we turn up with the right attitude and play like we can we will lift that challenge cup im in no doubt about that. I just think we will want it a little bit more than them. Play like we did against Wigan in the semi job done.

I'm certainly letting the occasion get to me. I've started smoking again.

If the lads are just 3% as nervous as me then we are in big trouble.

If you can't enjoy the build up to a major final, what's the point? This one's been very good IMO, good balance of positivity and realism. Wish you all safe travels and that the game is a good one. The team and club have worked very hard to get us to this point, excellent season's progress regardless of outcome.

I don't get the doubts or talk like Warrington are the favourites for this game

History's aside there's little to call between the two different teams. I just feel us possibly starting with at best one winger n having Evans cover on the wing forcing t king to play at centre is going to give u guys the edge I'd love to be wrong but having Russel n Evans on the wing has cost us trys that arguably penny n Lineham score and in a final to be without one and possibly the other is going to have an effect on the result one way or another

Warrington are the favourites for the game with bookmakers, hence the talk to this effect.