St Helens prop Alex Walmsley believes it is going to be tougher for the Saints to retain the Betfred Super League title but insists that the players are still hungry to win it all in 2023.
The Saints won their fourth successive Betfred Super League title, the first team in history to do so, in 2022 after they defeated Leeds Rhinos in September's Grand Final at Old Trafford. It was the final season that Saints had Kristian Woolf in charge and he was replaced by former St Helens fullback Paul Wellens.
Walmsley has spent the past ten seasons with St Helens, winning ten pieces of silverware during that time, and he’s about to head into his 11th campaign hungry to add more titles to his haul.
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He told The Sportsman: “We go into every season wanting to win everything we can. We’ve got a good side again and we’ve kept some key players. All the young boys are a year older, a bit wiser.”
The 32-year-old also believes that the confidence in the squad is high following their history-making triumph last year.
“We’re going into it confident in terms of who we are as a team, what we’ve got in our squad.”
Walmsley highlights that the Super League continues to get more difficult because their rivals, like them, keep on strengthening their squads. But he believes that this just makes the Saints more determined to carry on winning titles and dominating the league.
“It gets tougher each year. Every other team has strengthened, they’ve bought players, they’ve retained players.
“As it has been for the last few seasons it’s going to get harder and harder to keep retaining the title, but we’re going into it with the aim of silverware.
“You don’t play for St Helens without those aims and ambitions. It’s no different this year, we’ll be going for every single trophy.”
The reigning champions get their 2023 Super League campaign underway with a trip to Castleford Tigers on Sunday 26 February with a kick-off time of 6pm.
*18+ | BeGambleAware | Odds Subject To Change
