BWSL Grand Final: Cunningham keen to complete second Saints treble

St Helens face reigning champions York Valkyrie in the Betfred Super League Grand Final at the Totally Wicked Stadium on Saturday, 6 October (KO 4.30pm) – live on Sky Sports.

Matty Smith’s side are just 80 minutes away from another treble winning season after lifting both the Women’s Challenge Cup and the League Leaders’ Shield already in 2024.

Saints have tasted that level of success under former coach Derek Hardman in 2021, and the memories from that historic year are still fresh in the mind for captain Jodie Cunningham:

“That was a really special year for me personally and for the other girls,” the 32-year-old stalwart said.

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? A try to remember on the biggest stage for @Jodie_cunny as @Saints1890 completed the treble. pic.twitter.com/HfOkdyaHua

— Rugby Football League (@TheRFL) October 13, 2021

“It would mean the world to us if we could do it again this year – especially for the young girls that have come through because we are always telling them how special it is to be part of this team and the opportunities that we have.”

With such huge success potentially on the horizon, it could be easy to forget that Saints lost two of their star players to rival teams in the off season.

“At the start of the season we lost Shona Hoyle and Eboni Partington who are both England internationals and everybody doubted us and thought that we might struggle this year – but we never doubted ourselves.”

“I could always see how the players who were going to step into those roles were going to do, and I was right. They’ve done just as good a job and that's been evident this year.

“We’ve also not just been successful, but it's been a really enjoyable year too.”

The Saints side have been dominant this year with few teams rivalling their defence. Their only loss came away against York Valkyrie in the opening round of the Super League back in April.

It was a thrilling encounter with the reigning Champions 12-0 up at half time, but the Red V fought back to lead 14-16 heading into the final couple of minutes thanks to scores from Katie Mottershead, Leah Burke and Rachael Woosey.

But it was ex-Saint Carrie Roberts who found the match-winning score in the penultimate minute.

Since that defeat, however, Cunningham and the rest of her squad have gone from strength to strength.

“There's been times where we've had players out and we've had different injuries, but we’ve still been confident that that we can keep performing at a high level.”

She added: “We've only conceded 88 points so far across the season which basically works out that we’ve conceded a try a game. That isn’t too shabby, is it?!”

Many believe that titles are built on defence and the England and Saints captain is confident that this will ring true for her side:

“People will say the other team were better for 10-15 minutes and you're on the ropes, but it never feels like that to us. We know that we’ve worked hard on our defence and we're so confident in it when we're playing great teams.

“There's going to be times where they have a lot of possession, but we don't panic and that's really powerful. We might make an error, we might turn the ball over near our own line, but you see four or five different people say, don't worry, we'll defend this.”

After being with St Helens since 2018, Cunningham has won every domestic accolade possible but is still on the hunt for more – not for herself, but for everyone on and off the pitch that has made the club’s success possible:

“Everyone is great. The girls are great but so are our staff behind the scenes in the women's game - a vast majority of them are just volunteers. So hopefully we can pay them back just ever so slightly for all the work they do for us and to do it on home turf this time around would be pretty special.”

Can Saints come out on top against the Valkyrie in their first ever home Grand Final?

The Betfred Women’s Super League Grand Final will take place at The Totally Wicked Stadium on Sunday 6 October (K.O. 4.30pm) and will be shown live on Sky Sports. 

Be there to witness the action with tickets on sale now!