Barrie McDermott says even legendary coach would struggle at Wakefield

It’s Easter which means its Rivals Round in the Betfred Super League.

There is a lot of focus on the Hull derby and the clash between Wigan Warriors and St Helens on Good Friday as traditionally the two biggest derbies, but the most important could be tonight’s clash between Wakefield Trinity and Castleford Tigers.

After seven rounds, they only have one win between them and at present they are the sides most threatened by relegation.

A win for either side would be huge.

Ahead of the huge game, and speaking on the Eddie and Stevo podcast, Barrie McDermott said he felt for Wakefield Trinity boss Mark Applegarth.

He even said legendary coach Wayne Bennet would struggle at the club.

“I don’t think it’s down to Mark Applegarth completely that they are where they are. The squad has always been a small one, it’s smaller now than it’s ever been,” McDermott said.

“They’ve got a couple of loan players in, one of the Senior brothers and Will Dagger came during the week.

“It’s a difficult one for Mark Applegarth because I’m not sure what he can do, you could put somebody like Wayne Bennet in there and I’m not sure what he’d do.

“The spiral is going at a fair rate of knots and I think it’s just 40 odd points they’ve scored over the course of the season, which is nowhere near good enough.

“You can defend your way to a victory but not if you’re not scoring enough points. It’s a given that you’ve got to have some kind of attack.”