Wigan Warriors’ biggest challenges heading into the 2025 Super League season is ‘creating hunger in paradise’. That’s according to the Warriors‘ chief executive Kris Radlinski, who has hailed the drive and motivation of skipper Liam Farrell in helping to push the club on after their quadruple winning 2024 season.
Wigan won every trophy available to them last time around with their season culminating in a low-scoring but dominant win over Hull KR at Old Trafford in the Super League Grand Final. Of course, it would be human nature for some players to ever so slightly sit back and take a moment to admire such incredible achievements, but the Cherry and Whites won’t be taking their foot off the gas any time soon.
As club captain Farrell is one of those responsible for setting and maintaining high standards and Radlinski has hailed the back-rower’s pursuit of continued success.
“One of the challenges we’ve got now after being so successful is creating hunger in paradise,” Radlinski told Talksport on Sunday morning. “We want these players to turn up to pre-season wanting to do it all again.
“We’re very lucky to have a captain in Liam Farrell who wants to finish his career with a career CV. He doesn’t want to have one year of success, he wants to look back at a 15-year career where he’s won many, many trophies.”
Wigan’s exploits through 2024 ensure they are one of the frontrunners for the BBC’s Sports Team of the Year award during Tuesday night’s Sports Personality of the Year ceremony.
“The Sports Personality of the Year, as we all know, is an institution and I’m pretty positive that they would have tracked our success this year,” Radlinski added when asked about the honour. “To be part of the conversation is massive for our club but more important for the sport.
“It’s stuck in this funny position where it’s everyone’s second-favourite sport. Everybody tunes in and everybody watches it but it doesn’t get the headlines or the focus and profile it deserves. To be part of this special night is really important for us.”
The Wigan Warriors chief added: “As a sport we’re still fighting a fight, there’s no doubt about that. It’s well documented the challenges that we face. As other sports’ broadcast deals are increasing, our central distribution, which is our main source of revenue, has decreased over the last few years.
“IMG have come on board, they’re our strategic partner and next year will be the first year of the grading process which we’ve all been through. It’s got some fans and it’s had some real negative press as well but I think IMG have said all along that it’s not the solution, it’s part of the process.
“Once the objectives have been achieved, which is to create stronger clubs, then they will talk about the next evolution of the sport. I think something which was perhaps mistaken right at the start of the IMG relationship was using the word ‘reimagination’.
“I think people expected a little bit different but the reality is they’ve encouraged clubs to improve standards and there’s been many examples of investment and infrastructure and digital transformation but perhaps it’s not been the reimagination or the dream we first anticipated and I think they would probably say they’re a little bit behind where they would like to be at this stage. From a product point of view it’s still delivering.”
Wigan Warriors will find out if they have won the award during Tuesday’s event, which will be held at MediaCity in Salford and shown live on the BBC.
