Hull KR star out to avoid setting unwanted Grand Final record against former club Wigan
Joe Burgess has won it all in the British game: except a Grand Final – and if he fails in his quest with Hull KR on Saturday evening, he’ll become the holder an unwanted Super League record.
A product of Wigan’s academy, winger Burgess shot through the ranks to feature in back-to-back Grand Finals in 2014 and 2015 before jetting off Down Under for stints with Sydney Roosters and South Sydney Rabbitohs.
Shaun Wane’s Warriors lost both of those showpieces to St Helens and Leeds Rhinos though, even with Burgess on the scoresheet with a try in each of them.
When he linked back up with Wigan following his NRL stint, the England international had to wait until 2020 for a shot at redemption: but Adrian Lam’s side were unforgettably beaten behind closed doors at the MKM Stadium during the COVID-19 Pandemic courtesy of Jack Welsby’s winning try after the final hooter for Saints.
Burgess departed Wigan again after that third Grand Final defeat, and after a three-year stint at Salford Red Devils, ended up at KR: with another redemption opportunity last October as the Robins reached Old Trafford for the first time.
Their opponents and conquerors? Wigan, of course. 9-2 the final score.
Hull KR star out to avoid setting unwanted Grand Final record against former club Wigan
Now, the same two sides meet again – and 30-year-old Burgess gets his fifth shot at winning a Grand Final, though this one carries more significance in the sense of trying to avoid unwanted history.
No man has ever before appeared in five Grand Finals without winning a single one.
Currently, Burgess jointly holds the record for most Grand Final appearances without a win (four) alongside six former Super League stars.
Those six are St Helens’ Paul Clough (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011), Chris Flannery (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010) and Matt Gidley (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010), Warrington Wolves’ Chris Hill (2012, 2013, 2016, 2018) and Stefan Ratchford (2012, 2013, 2016, 2018), and the late Terry Newton – who lost with Leeds in 1998 as well as with Wigan in 2000, 2001 and 2003.
But no one before has ever made five appearances in Super League Grand Finals without winning a single one, so Burgess will hope to avoid becoming the first man to do so.
Notably however, even if he does, he won’t be on his own in having lost five Grand Finals. Seven men share that record currently, though all of them won at least one of their first five appearances in the competition’s showpiece.
Lee Gilmour, James Graham, Francis Meli, Leon Pryce, James Roby, Paul Wellens and Jon Wilkin make up the septet, and if Burgess loses with the Robins this weekend, he will join to make it a record jointly-held by an octet.
Of the current ‘unlucky’ seven, Graham, Meli, Roby, Wellens and Wilkin all lost with St Helens in successive years from 2007 to 2011.
Gilmour meanwhile lost with Saints in 2007, 2008 and 2009, with Bradford Bulls in 2002 and with Wigan in 2000.
Pryce lost with Saints in 2007, 2008 and 2009 and with Bradford in 1999 and 2002.
