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Kristian Woolf reveals “one of the hardest things” he’s done & why he was up at 4:30am in Grand Final build up

Last night was a night that will live long in the memory for St Helens fans as they won a record fourth consecutive title.

It was also a record ninth Grand Final win, a record 10th title in their record 14th Grand Final appearance.

But perhaps the happiest man was departing coach Kristian Woolf who also made history becoming the first coach to win three consecutive titles after taking over from Justin Holbrook after his Grand Final triumph in 2019.

Woolf is headed down under after the World Cup with Tonga where he will work alongside Wayne Bennett with NRL new boys the Dolphins.

He revealed after last night’s Grand Final just how difficult it was to tell his players he was moving on.

“One of the hardest things I’ve had to do is stand up and tell this group I’m not going to be here,” Woolf said, “I respect them as men, I respect what they do. I love coming to work all the time because they work so hard. That was a hard day for me, I understand the reasons why we made that decision, it was a family decision with a lot of reasons behind it but there was a part of me that didn’t want to do that. I’d love to be here and work with them a little longer.

“They’ve 100% made me a better coach, I’m only a small part of their success. They’re an exceptional group.

“I’m a much better coach because I’ve come over here. I’ve learnt more off them than they’d have learnt off me.”

An emotional week, it was an extra busy week as Woolf revealed. This was because he also had to submit his squad for the World Cup this week as Tonga coach. Add that to the Morgan Knowles disciplinary and you have the busiest week of Woolf’s career with him having to wake up at 4:30 on the day of the Grand Final: “I was up at 4:30 of the day of the captain’s run making phone calls to Australia. Grand Final weeks are busy weeks as it is and throw the Morgan Knowles thing in, its been a busy week nothing a couple of beers won’t fix.”

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