Kenneth Jarvis, Warrington Wolves Blogger

Winning a semi-final is a special thing, as is the anticipation leading up to the final of getting tickets, organising travel and looking forward to a great day out. For players too, the occasion will be one of a very few that they’ll get to experience in their career.

For the players though, all that talk needed to stop when they got back into training. The scheduling hasn’t been kind to Warrington, meaning they have to play on a Thursday after such a big event, but it’s something that they’ll have to deal with.

The Super 8’s are here, and it’s time to refocus the minds and realise that it’s not just one final that Warrington are aiming to get to.

Of all the fixtures to have, St. Helens at home may have been on of the most cruel. They have had a lot of success is Warrington and are coming off a run of great results. Warrington will have to be firing on all cylinders if they are to win, but firing on all cylinders after a semi-final final win just five days earlier is no easy task, especially against a club that has had a week’s rest.

Each game is crucial now as you want to finish at least in the top two, and hopefully claim the league leaders shield. Between now and the Challenge Cup final, the players have to get their heads down and take care of business.

There is a lot of rugby to be played before the players should even start dreaming of a Wembley win. The fans will continue to get excited, but the players can’t think like that. If they do, we could find ourselves slipping of of contention by the time the final is done.

Following on for the tricky tie vs St. Helens, Warrington are due to play Wakefield and Castleford. They are the types of games that Warrington can easily lose if they aren’t focused, and in the games before the final, that is a real danger.

Wins against all three will not only see us going into the rest of the Super 8’s with a lot of confidence, but it’ll also enable us to go into the final on the back of a good run of results.

I feel these next three games will be crucial for the season as I’m worried about the attitude fans and players will take into them. If we lose on Thursday, they’d be a feeling of “at least we’re going to Wembley”, and I’d be guilty of that myself. As a player, playing in front of crowds around 10,000 or less is hardly going to motivate you if you’re soon to play in front of 80,000.

For the next few weeks though it isn’t the 80,000 at Wembley that the players should be thinking about, it’s the 70,000 at Old Trafford for the Grand Final.

We’re all absolutely delighted that we’re in a major final, but Tony Smith and the players should demand perfection and performance from themselves, and that starts with beating St.Helens on Thursday. That’d make a huge statement for the rest of the season.