LINDSAY Anfield stressed that York Valkyrie are a “completely different team” this season and admitted they must fix up their mistakes if they are to retain the Betfred Women’s Super League Grand Final trophy at St Helens this afternoon (4:30pm).

The sides will face off at the Totally Wicked Stadium in front of the Sky Sports cameras, with York hoping to make history by becoming the first team to secure back-to-back Grand Finals, whilst Saints need just one more piece of silverware to complete a 2024 treble.

If the Valkyrie are to win a historic second consecutive Grand Final however, they will have to do so without captain Sinead Peach, outside back Emma Kershaw, influential full-back Tara Jane Stanley and utility Liv Gale.

The latter are both sidelined with serious knee injuries, whilst Kershaw has a ruptured spleen and reigning Woman of Steel Peach has missed the entirety of the season through pregnancy.

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But that has only served to highlight the contributions of rising talents Izzy Brennan and Lisa Parker, and mid-season recruits Remi Wilton and Megan Pakulis, who are all preparing for their first Grand Final this weekend.

“It feels like a completely different team,” Anfield told The Press.

“We’ve played a completely different form of rugby, we’ve got a lot of square pegs in round holes in terms of where we want them to be.

“But if the game’s going to be won on a willingness to work and a greater determination, I think we’ll be good competitors on Sunday.”

July's 18-10 defeat to Wigan Warriors was the turning point for the Valkyrie, believes Anfield.July's 18-10 defeat to Wigan Warriors was the turning point for the Valkyrie, believes Anfield. (Image: Alan Milner/Milner Creative/York RLFC) Having been blighted by injury, and some players experiencing an early-season hangover from last year’s Grand Final, Anfield pinpointed July’s 18-10 defeat to Wigan Warriors as the turning point for her side.

Conceding it was the reality check they needed, York have beaten the Warriors and Leeds Rhinos twice on their way to the trophy-crowning match, something the director of rugby did not believe would be possible.

“We’ve chopped and changed things all season,” she explained.

“When we got beaten by Wigan we were more or less out of the League Leaders’ Shield, we were already out of the Challenge Cup, so everything we’ve done since that defeat was focused on getting to the Grand Final.

“Whether working out how we’re going to play, how we’re going to defend, we’ve spent a lot of games trying to do that to get to this point.

“We’ve just got to go out there, we’ve got the best team that we can possibly field, and try and put everything together.”

Anfield hopes York can learn from a second half in which they went away from the game plan at Leeds.Anfield hopes York can learn from a second half in which they went away from the game plan at Leeds. (Image: Craig Hawkhead Photography) Anfield though hopes that the Valkyrie can learn a lot from their thrilling 12-10 Semi-Final victory at Leeds a fortnight ago.

Tries from Kelsey Gentles and Savannah Andrade had given the visitors a healthy lead, but though the Rhinos took advantage of Tamzin Renouf's sin bin to fight back, Keara Bennett could not score the decisive conversion from the right touchline with just seconds left on the clock.

"I felt we just took our foot off the gas a little bit, we got a bit erratic towards the latter parts of the second half, but we've learned a lot from that," the director of rugby reflected.

"It's all a learning experience for the girls and we'll take it into Sunday.

"I think they just got a bit excited, they could see the end in sight. It's one of the things that the girls do, they're very emotional players and very passionate, they were determined to get the win.

"They were two tries ahead, we were sending on the message of a drop-goal and that didn't happen, and we ended up coming under the pump. That was a really good lesson for them.

"We had the whole squad round at my house on the Tuesday night and we went through it. We went through every scenario saying 'Why has this happened?', 'How can we prevent this from happening?', 'Do you understand why you nearly ended up losing the game because of your mentality?'

"We're trying to educate those rugby smarts, without the two natural leaders of Sinead and Tara being on the field, you're reliant in them just doing their roles and understanding what to do.

"Sometimes they go away from that process, but hopefully they've learned the harsh lesson that they've gotten away with it this time, but they won't get away with it on Sunday."