Kevin Brown is back with his latest rugby league talking points column as the Super League season heads towards its climax.
This week, the Warrington Wolves half-back looks back on St Helens' impressive display as they booked their place in the Super League Grand Final with a 40-10 win at home to Wigan Warriors last Friday.
There is a look ahead to Friday's eliminator between Wigan and Salford Red Devils as well, plus Kevin's thoughts on the Million Pound Game, the NRL Grand Final and this Friday's key battles...
Saints show their class in Wigan win
St Helens were amazing on Friday and I think it's the best I've seen them play under Justin Holbrook. The start was key - they just blew Wigan away, and the fact they've now done that in play-off game under Holbrook is the first time they've really performed on the big stage when they've needed to.
Luke Thompson was chosen as man of the match and, for me, he's the best front-row in Super League and he has been for some time now. But I also think he's potentially one of the best in the world in his position.
The way he's performing not only with ball in hand, but defensively as well and pressuring kickers, I think he's been fantastic.
I had a look at some of the stats after the game and the starting front row for Saints of Thompson and Alex Walmsley ran for over 300 metres while the starting front row for Wigan went 30 metres, which highlights the total domination of the front row and the platform they set.
I wrote last week about the battle of the half-backs between Jonny Lomax and George Williams, and obviously Jonny came out on top. But when you're getting that platform laid for you as a half-back, there is nothing better to play off.
Last year, it seems as if Saints relied a lot on Ben Barba to come up with tries and assists, whereas this year it is a collective.
Lachlan Coote is back to his best form after taking a lot of criticism following the Challenge Cup final defeat and the variation of the kicking game between him and Theo Fages must be so hard for full-backs to defend against.
James Roby marshals the middle, the forwards are all pushing, then you get Lomax and Fages who can get it out to the edges, where you've got some of the best finishers in the game in Mark Percival and Tommy Makinson. To win 40-10 against a team who haven't lost in eight games just shows how incredible they were on the night.
A case for the defence
The good thing for Wigan is they know they're better than that. Defensively, it's been months since they leaked 40 points and the way they defended against Salford the previous week was unbelievable.
Against St Helens, that wasn't really there and that's probably because of the fatigue. I think the start highlighted how hard that game was for Wigan against Salford, while Saints looked like they had been waiting for two weeks, were let off the leash and blew them away at the beginning.
I'm sure Adrian Lam will be showing his players the clips of two weeks ago because Salford couldn't break them down, and that's what they'll be going back to and trying to replicate this week when Ian Watson's men visit on Friday.
From the Red Devils' point of view, they've probably gone under the radar a little bit defensively. But they showed that side of their game in Thursday's win over Castleford, and there was no better tackle that epitomised desire and will to win than Niall Evalds' try-saving tackle on Jordan Rankin.
For me, that was probably the best tackle of the year and the only one which comes close was probably Evalds' Salford team-mate Jackson Hastings when he did something similar earlier in the season.
If you look at the Red Devils' pack, five of them are old Wigan players - so it's no coincidence they've got this steely resolve which has been ground into those players by former head coaches Michael Maguire and Shaun Wane.
Players like Gil Dudson, Lee Mossop and Logan Tomkins have come through that systems and if you add a bit of class around them in Joey Lussick, Hastings and Evalds, all of a sudden you've got a really good working team.
I was at the AJ Bell Stadium for the game and sat in front of me were injured Tigers quintet Michael Shenton, Luke Gale, Junior Moors, Jesse Sene-Lefao and Mike McMeeken, so I think people underestimate how well Castleford have done this year without a large chunk of the salary cap.
I think it was just a game too far for them, however. They did look a bit devoid of ideas, Salford defended really well on Jake Trueman and, apart from a couple of breaks, looked really comfortable.
Can Rovers shock the Wolfpack?
There is a cracking Million Pound Game in prospect this Saturday, which sees Toronto Wolfpack host Featherstone Rovers. Both teams are in really good form and there's a lot to play for - not least promotion to Super League for 2020.
Obviously Toronto have been building for this for several years and I think all of the pressure will be on them. It's not much different to last year where London Broncos went away to them and won that game against the odds.
I've spoken to a few of the Featherstone lads and they're all feeling really confident. They've won three on the bounce away in the play-offs - against Leigh Centurions, York City Knights and now Toulouse Olympique - so they've got the blueprint and know how to travel.
They've spent a lot of time together and been successful on the road, so they'll be very confident - and in all three of those games they've scored 30 points, so attack-wise they're getting a lot of things right at the minutes.
My worry would be they're going up against a Toronto team which has won 22 games in a row and for any team to win that many shows how much dominance they have.
One thing Rovers will speak about is how they went to Toronto last year and beat them 30-12, becoming the first team to beat the Wolfpack in Canada, so a lot of players will have a positive experience of being over there.
Brits make their mark in NRL
Like a lot of other people, I'll be keeping a close eye on how Canberra Raiders' British quarter get on against Sydney Roosters in this Sunday's NRL Grand Final.
John Bateman has been an absolute revelation in the NRL. There were question marks over whether he'd be able to do what he did over here in Australia, but he's probably gone even better for the Raiders.
He's played in a World Cup final, won a Super League Grand Final and a Challenge Cup, and now he's going to get the chance win a final over there. Hopefully Ryan Hall plays for the Roosters and we'll have another Englishman playing against them.
I think Josh Hodgson is playing the best I've seen him play for a long time too. He's ripping balls for fun from opposition players, his defensive attributes last week were key and, having played alongside him in that World Cup, I know how good he is with the ball.
Canberra are playing some really good stuff and the Roosters are obviously on fire to knock Melbourne Storm out as well. It's going to be a really good game, and we're pretty fortunate all three games live on Sky Sports this week are going to be massive.
This week's key battles
It's Wigan against Salford at the DW Stadium again in Friday's eliminator, with the sides having met just two weeks ago in the first round of the play-offs. The Red Devils lost 18-12 that day, but came away from that feeling like they'd won with the performance they produced.
I've also heard numerous interviews with Watson and Mark Flanagan saying how much confidence they got out of that game from being more than in the arm-wrestle for 80 minutes.
I'm excited to watch a few battles unfold. Full-backs Zak Hardaker and Evalds are playing as well as they have done; Wigan-bound Hastings and George Williams, who joins Canberra next year, are two of the best half-backs in the game at the minute, so that's going to be fascinating.
I'm also looking forward to watching props Tony Clubb and Dudson go head-to-head. Clubb got under the skin of some of the Salford lads last time out and Dudson has got that steely resolve as well, so I think there will be some fireworks and I'm really looking forward to watching that.