DARYL Clark says he and his Warrington Wolves teammates knew they could ‘shock everyone’ and win the Challenge Cup.
Clark’s superb individual display which included a try won him the Lance Todd Trophy as The Wire stunned massive favourites St Helens at Wembley Stadium.
The hooker joined Joe Philbin and Ben Murdoch-Masila on the scoresheet and says last year’s Wembley defeat to Catalans Dragons played a big part in their mindset.
After three losing finals, the former Castleford man is just happy to finally get his hands on the famous trophy.
“I’m just happy to get the win,” he said.
“I’d been here three times and have had to walk past the trophy in all of them so to get my hands on it was special.
“To pick up the Lance Todd tops it off.
“I’ve had a good feeling all week. We were mad underdogs but we’ve flipped it on it’s head a bit.
“Tommy Lineham spoke in our team meeting last night about how we were massive favourites last year.
“Maybe a few of us were a bit arrogant and thought we’d only have to turn up and it massively backfired on us.
“Saints were getting all the accolades and the media have been bigging them up.
“We snuck under the radar all week. We stuck to our gameplan and we had a good feeling in camp.
“We knew we could shock everyone.”
Clark also spoke about the 73rd minute try that sealed victory for his side.
“Dec (Patton) was screaming at me to finish in the corner and let them come out of there,” he said.
“I saw a gap and luckily I got over the line.
“I don’t get many these days so to get one in a final is special.
“They were getting their noses through quite a bit and we had to scramble.
“We had a pact that we were going to leave everything out there.”
The Lance Todd Trophy voting has been made public this year.
The Challenge Cup Final man-of-the-match award is judged by members of the media.
Warrington Guardian sports editor Mike Parsons was on the panel and was among 21 of the 34 voters to select Clark, who became only the third hooker to win the Lance Todd Trophy.
The 26-year-old Yorkshireman followed in the footsteps of Michael Monaghan, who won Rugby League’s best-known player of the match award for his Wire performance against Huddersfield in 2009.
It had been 60 years earlier that the Hull FC legend Tommy Harris became the first hooker to win the 73-year-old award, even in defeat by Wakefield Trinity.
Stefan Ratchford received 7 votes; there were 3 for Ben Murdoch-Masila; and one each for Bryson Goodwin, Joe Philbin and Jack Hughes.
Full details of how the panel voted below:
1 - Trevor Hunt – Daryl Clark
2 - Richard Bott – Clark
3 - Ray French – Ben Murdoch-Masila
4 - Trevor Baxter – Stefan Ratchford
5 - Terry Holmes - Clark
6 - Dave Woods - Clark
7 - Julie Stott - Clark
8 - John Lawless - Clark
9 - John Davidson - Ratchford
10 - Ian Laybourn - Clark
11 - Danny Lockwood – Murdoch-Masila
12 - Richard Shaw-Wright - Clark
13 - David Ballheimer - Clark
14 - Mike Parsons - Clark
15 - Huw Richards - Clark
16 - Ian Cheveau - Clark
17 - Peter Smith - Clark
18 - Phil Caplan – Bryson Goodwin
19 - Mark Wilson - Clark
20 - Paul Bennett - Clark
21 - David Burke - Clark
22 - Matt Shaw – Joe Philbin
23 - Gareth Walker - Clark
24 - Phil Thomas - Ratchford
25 - Matt Newsum - Clark
26 - Chris Irvine - Ratchford
27 - Martyn Sadler - Clark
28 - Matt Horton – Jack Hughes
29 - Dave Lyon – Murdoch-Masila
30 – Gary Carter – Clark
31 – Mike Critchley – Ratchford
32 – Martin Richards – Clark
33 – Ross Heppenstall – Ratchford
34 – Mike Keegan – Ratchford
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