While Saints cruised through to a third successive Grand Final thanks to a 38-10 rout of the Rhinos, Brian McClennan's men have a second chance to reach Old Trafford via next Friday's final eliminator against Wigan.

Leeds suffered a 10-8 defeat at Knowsley Road in last year's qualifying semi but recovered to knock out Wigan and went on to gain their revenge on Saints in the final.

Wellens is confident his side can finish the job this time and believes that will be at the expense of the Rhinos.

''You would always expect a side with as much quality as Leeds to bounce back,'' he said.

''They showed they could do that last year and they are going to have to do it again. There is no reason why they can't.''

Saints ran in seven tries against an out-of-touch Leeds to extend their unbeaten run to 23 matches and Wellens believes his side are in better shape than they were a year ago.

The England international believes the credit for a strong finish to the season goes to outgoing coach Daniel Anderson and the long-serving Apollo Perelini, the club's former player and conditioner who is being linked with a close-season move to Warrington.

''It's awesome,'' said Wellens. ''It certainly was our goal at the start of the season to get to the Grand Final.

''Things didn't look too great after the start we had but, with the quality we've got here, we kept our composure and put a fantastic winning run together.

''Hopefully we can learn from the experience of last year now and get the job done.

''We will enjoy the rest again but continue to train hard and prepare well.

''Certainly the boys this year are in far better shape than we were at the back end of last year and hopefully that will show in our performance.

''I think we've got the balance right this year. The boys are training just as hard but not for as long a period. Apollo and Daniel have taken care of that side of things.

''The guys feel in fantastic shape and could have kept going for another 10 or 15 minutes on Friday night.''

It is now more than five months since St Helens last experienced defeat and Wellens rates Friday's humiliation of the champions as one of his side's best performances of the season.

''It's right up there, given the occasion and the opposition we were up against,'' he said. ''The guys were fantastic. We enjoyed the break and came out firing. I just hope we can repeat it next week.

''We're pretty happy with the performance but we've certainly got our feet on the ground. We learnt a serious lesson from last year.''

In addition to the backroom departures, the Saints fans bade a fond farewell on Friday night to Willie Talau and Nick Fozzard, in addition to the sidelined Paul Sculthorpe, who announced his retirement before kick-off.

While the future of Sculthorpe and Talau remains unclear, Fozzard will join Hull KR on a two-year contract at the end of the season.

Wellens added: ''I don't think if these players weren't leaving, the performance would have been any less because we're a committed side.

''We enjoy each other's company and we give everything for each other regardless of the situation but it's certainly special for those guys who played their last game at Knowsley Road to go out on a high.''