Wigan boss Peet pays tribute to retiring Farrell

Wigan Warriors coach Matt Peet with his right arm up speaking to his captain Liam Marshall Image source, Swpix.com
Image caption,

Matt Peet (right) named Liam Farrell (left) as his Wigan captain in December 2022 following Thomas Leuluai's retirement.

ByMatthew Cresswell
BBC Sport England
  • Published

Wigan Warriors boss Matt Peet has paid tribute to retiring captain Liam Farrell who is pulling the curtain down on a trophy-laden 16-year playing spell at the club.

The 36-year-old announced he will retire at the end of the season after spending his entire club career with his hometown side since making his debut in 2010.

Farrell has won six Super Leagues, five League Leaders' Shields, five Challenge Cups and the World Club Challenge on two occasions with the Cherry and Whites as they aim to seal another League Leaders' Shield title when they host Catalans Dragons on Friday night.

"It's been a privilege to work with him. To watch his career develop and how he conducts himself on the field," Peet told BBC Radio Manchester.

"I've always thought that Liam has moments in big games because of the sacrifices he makes and the way that he trains. He really does have a relentless attitude to his training.

"He trains when he shouldn't be. I remember one off-season when it was way off the time when the lads were due back in pre-season but we had an early morning start with some of our academy recruits.

"It was still dark on a winter morning, it was about 6am and Faz [Farrell] was running ten 600's [metres] on the track at Robin Park [Wigan's training ground] in the dark. I remember saying to the lads 'listen I was going to talk to you but just look outside - that's your club captain'."

Peet wary of Catalans

On the field, Wigan will wrap up a third League Leaders' Shield in four years under Peet if they match Leeds' result against Hull FC after their 40-8 statement win at the Rhinos last Saturday which was their 14th straight Super League victory.

With Catalans having nothing but pride left to play for, Wigan are red-hot favourites to pick up their second piece of silverware this season after their Challenge Cup final win in May.

But the meticulous Peet is not leaving anything up to chance.

On Catalans, he said: "We've got to expect the best of them. Particularly the backline, I think Charlie Staines has been outstanding all season.

"Tommy Makinson's coming towards the end of an unbelievable career and he's going to want to do himself proud, which I'm sure he will.

"Nick Cotric is a massive talent. As it's the last game of their season, they're going to give it everything they've got."