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Matt Peet says St Helens’ success is “irrelevant”

Matt Peet might only be one year into his head coaching role but he’s been in and around the Wigan set-up since 2008 most notably as Head of Youth Development.

It makes sense therefore that there were no ‘jitters’ during his first year in charge with the Warriors securing silverware in the shape of the Challenge Cup and running St Helens close for the League Leaders Shield.

Losing in the play-offs is something he’ll want to rectify for 2023 but Peet is more than clear as to the goal when coaching such a prestigious club, and the team that he needs to chase down, something he spoke to the Betfred Youtube Channel about.

“[Saints success is] irrelevant really,” Peet declared. “It gets mentioned a lot but I do genuinely mean it when I say it’s the perfect time to be Wigan coach and I would hate to be a Wigan coach if Saints weren’t at least competing and right at the top, that’s the benchmark”.

Wigan will be looking to return to Old Trafford, with Peet hoping to lead the Cherry and Whites
to Super League glory for the first time since 2018.

The historic rivals met four times last season, three times in Super League and once in the Challenge Cup, with the honours split and both Saints and Wigan winning twice.

The most notable Wigan victory came in the Challenge Cup Semi-Final against Saints, a result that led to them beating Huddersfield Giants in the Final to win the historic competition for the 20th time.

Peet elaborated: “I don’t shy away from the admiration I have from the way they’ve done it. You have to applaud the way they’ve developed their own players, the players don’t get caught up in their own success, I like the way they go about their business.

“There are a lot of things in there that when Wigan’s at its best we do as well, and we want to beat them at their own game. There’s a mutual respect I think.”

Saints will return from down under after contesting the World Club Challenge on Saturday morning, a game that will be televised on Channel 4 immediately before the free-to-air channel show Wigan traveling to Hull KR for the 1pm kick-off.

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