Grand Final retrospective | James Graham

St Helens know all about Grand Finals. No club has appeared in more during the Super League era than the Saints. And they have fielded some of the most dominant sides over the past 25 years – teams littered with stars that are etched in Super League history.

James Graham has played a central part in two of St Helens’ most successful periods. From his first taste of Grand Final glory in 2006 to the fairy tale conclusion to his glittering career in 2020, Graham knows better than most about the extreme highs and lows that come with Super League’s flagship event.

This year we celebrate 25 years of Grand Finals, looking back on some of its most iconic moments through the lens of those that have experienced it first-hand.

Winning a Grand Final is special. But doing it with your hometown club is even more so. A St Helens junior who came through the ranks at the club, James Graham was in the infancy of his career when he experienced his first Grand Final.

The tenacious front rower was part of a dominant St Helens squad that took the sport by storm in 2006. As a young, up and coming player in a side flooded with household names, Graham tasted the elation of Grand Final glory at the first time of asking when Saints defeated Hull FC at Old Trafford to be crowned Champions of Super League.

“To be honest, it was just about enjoying the moment for me. I think I was about 20, so I was just loving life. I don’t know whether I thought it was going to carry on or whether it was a one off – I was just going to enjoy it.

“We won the Challenge Cup that year [2006], we won the League Leaders’ Shield – it was a clean sweep. And we backed it up with the World Club Challenge the year after as well. I guess looking back, it’s something I’m incredibly pleased about, that I’m part of one of the greatest teams in St Helens’ rich history – and that’s saying something.

“It was an honour to play in that team, it was an honour to play for St Helens – my boyhood team. You come through and after two or three seasons you’re winning the lot, life is pretty good.

“But you’re not thinking it’s going to come easy again – you know how hard it is. You realise that it’s not going to come easy.??

Nothing is guaranteed in sport. And James Graham knows that better than anyone. After their Grand Final euphoria in 2006, St Helens fell short at the final hurdle in five consecutive years after. Graham was a prominent figure at the club during that period, winning the coveted Man of Steel award in 2008 and emerging as a key leader in the St Helens pack.

Individually, Graham was quickly becoming one of the best players in the competition and, as a collective, St Helens were regularly regarded as the best team in the competition. But despite all that, further Grand Final glory evaded them.

“It’s not an ideal situation. You work so hard, and you don’t get what you think you deserve. In some of those years and some of those seasons I felt we were the best team in the competition - and we didn’t get what we deserved. In others, we just found a way to get into the final.

“But in those years when I felt we were the best team in the competition, I give credit to Leeds. They beat us on the day, and they played well. And that was the competition. The competition isn’t to be the best team in the league, it’s to be in a position to win the Grand Final and take it home – and Leeds did that.

“I think Leeds were magnificent in those games. To come up against a highly motivated, highly skilled opposition with some fantastic leaders in – that’s going to happen.

“It’s a test of character whether after a defeat you just throw in the towel or you dust yourself off and go again. You’re hurting for weeks, months, years, and the great thing about sport is that it gives you another opportunity to go again.??

Graham’s reputation grew and he soon found himself excelling even further in the NRL. There, he established himself as one of the best forwards in the modern era – but there was still unfinished business in Super League.

✅ CONFIRMED

James Graham will return to the club where he made his name

Welcome back to Super League Jammer 👋

READ 👉 https://t.co/GAqypxdErb pic.twitter.com/NNwnuEYVFB

— Betfred Super League (@SuperLeague) June 30, 2020

During the height of the COVID pandemic in 2020, James Graham returned to the club where it all began. It was his last hoorah, one final opportunity to avenge those Grand Final defeats with his home town club and write the wrongs from all those years ago. Although if you asked him at the time, he wouldn't have agreed.

“Looking back at what I was like as a player and what the situation was like, you know that there’s so many variables and you know it’s not just as easy as saying ‘I’m coming to win a Grand Final’. That’s just stupid. Because you know that as hard as you may try – and I’ve learnt this the hard way – you can’t guarantee that outcome.

“It’s probably just how most athlete’s work. They try and keep it under wraps and bottle it up and just focus. What I could control was how I went about my business day to day, and what I could do to impact the team. I couldn’t control some of the variables so I just did what I could and plan for that, plan for the best – but you can’t guarantee it.??

After a professional career of over 17 years, it all comes down to the last play 🤯

Raw emotion from James Graham in the dramatic final moments of the #GrandFinal 👊#SuperLeague pic.twitter.com/Kwcy2bRmf7
— Betfred Super League (@SuperLeague) November 28, 2020

As much as Graham had played down the significance of winning the Grand Final in 2020, that’s what he was back for. And he joined a champion side that were more than capable of going the distance.

But no one in their wildest dreams could have imagined the way St Helens would earn back-to-back Grand Final wins. In an empty stadium against their oldest rivals, Saints achieved further immortality in the dying moments of the game.

“There was so many sub plots. The fact that COVID was going on, we genuinely didn’t know whether the season was a hundred percent coming back. In my conversations with Mike Rush about me returning, I was asking if the season was going ahead and he said ‘I’m confident, but I can’t guarantee it.’ That’s the sort of predicament that the game was in.

“But for me on a personal level, that 2020 Grand Final was a fairy tale ending. In fact, if it was a fairy tale, you’d rip it up and say, ‘you’re taking that too far.’

“It was bizarre. It was crazy. It was unique. It was beyond Roy of the Rovers stuff. It meant honestly so much to me – I don’t have the vocabulary to describe just how important that was for me on a personal level. I was coming back to finish my career and try and get an opportunity to win the Super League. That’s what I was coming back for – to play in a team that was going to win it.??

Super League celebrates its 25th Grand Final in 2022 and you can be there to experience it. Bring the noise at the Theatre of Dreams and attend the Betfred Super League Grand Final by purchasing your tickets here.