Why the Wigan Warriors star prefers to be the one being hunted

Liam Marshall has discussed the burden of having “a target on our back” and the difficulty Wigan Warriors face as they transition from being “hunters” to “hunted.”

Warriors have made a name for themselves in the recent few years; they won the Challenge Cup in 2022 and went on to win the Super League title and the League Leaders’ Shield the following season.

They sealed their position atop the rugby league hierarchy in February by defeating the NRL premiers Penrith Panthers in the World Club Challenge, completing the set.

Furthermore, Marshall, who scored the game-winning tries in both the Grand Final and Challenge Cup victories, acknowledges that they are now targets for abuse.

“On the back of winning the Grand Final last year, we spoke a lot about being the hunted as opposed to the hunter,” he explained.

After a few years of following the leaders in the pack, we realized we had a target on our back when we emerged as champions.

“I believe we’ve got off to a decent start, that we managed the World Club Challenge distraction rather well, and that we’ve laid a solid platform for the upcoming campaign.

“We came up a little short in the Good Friday loss, which was obviously disappointing. That was perhaps the hardest test we’ve had this year on paper.

“But we learned quite a few lessons that day, and overall we’re quite happy with where we’re sitting – while knowing there’s always room for improvement.”

Marshall claims that the mindset within the camp hasn’t altered in the slightest, despite the fact that other teams will be stepping it up even further to challenge the champions.

“It took us five years to win a Grand Final since the last one, and so much hard work on and off the field…working on the culture and what that means,” he stated.

We must continue to think of ourselves as the greatest squad, despite the fact that we are champions and that everyone talks about us everywhere we go.

“The loss to St Helens on Good Friday demonstrated that we are still a long way from where we want to be, that we have more work ahead of us, and that we are not there yet.

“If we can keep working hard week in week, hopefully we can be in a position to be there or thereabouts at the business end of the season again.”

Wigan made a strong statement about their desire to remain at the top by adding a number of players over the off-season to further strengthen their roster, including Luke Thompson, Sam Walters, Adam Keighran, and Kruise Leeming.

“It’s probably very difficult for a player to come into an environment where a team has just won a Grand Final,” Marshall said.

“However, everyone of the new players was added to the club for a specific reason; they are all excellent players and people who have each given the squad something extra and unique.

“And I’d like to think the rest of the players have tried to make it as easy a transition as possible for them to do that.”