Wakefield Trinity boss Daryl Powell has drawn comparisons between Liam Hood and former Castleford Tigers hooker Paul McShane. Powell knows McShane more than most having coached him for much of his career at Wheldon Road and he sees plenty of similarities in Hood, who has been one of Wakefield’s star men so far this season.
The number nine, who is off contract this year, has scored three tries in his last four games for Wakefield as he finds form and shows off his Super League class. The most recent one came last week against Leigh Leopards in the league and he’ll be looking to repeat the feat on Friday night when Wakefield take on the same opponents in the final eight of the Challenge Cup.
He’s picked up plenty of plaudits already this season then and Powell has become the latest to pile praise on the 33-year-old.
“I won’t go into that too much,” Powell said when asked about the Wakefield hooker’s Trinity future. “One thing I will say is he’s been phenomenal, Hoody.
“There’s a few things about him, his personality is fantastic and he’s the sort of kid you want around your club because he brightens things up. I think he is one of the best hookers in the comp at the moment.
“I think he’s super dangerous as Leigh found out close to the line last week. He hasn’t had too many bad moments, he’s started the season really well.
“He missed the Hull KR game but he’s been phenomenal. I love him as a bloke and he reminds me a lot of Paul McShane to be honest, a guy I coached in the past who had so many good qualities to his game. He’s been awesome.”
Indeed, Hood was one of the key men at Leigh Sports Village last week, but his focus will now be on trying to get Wakefield into a Cup semi-final for the first time since 2016. Of course, Leigh will be eager for revenge after the 40-14 defeat to Wakefield and Powell is expecting a tough contest at Belle Vue.
“I don’t know about backlash,” the Wakefield Trinity boss added. “There wasn’t that much in the game.
“When I asked the boys afterwards they said it was a tough game and recognised it was a battle. We defended really positively and got some things on the back end of that and we had a couple of calls go our way.
“That’s the way it is and we’ve probably been on the other side of the calls for most of the season and that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
We were deserving of the win last week but it doesn’t do anything for this week, it’s another game and opposition that has a real motivation.
“For us, your motivation shouldn’t rise and dip really, it should stay exactly where it needs to be. We want our motivation to stay where it was last week and not get too ahead of ourselves.
“We feel like we’re in a good place challenging teams and we feel like we can do that again but they’re a tough side and they can cause you a lot of trouble if you sit off them and let them play and they’ve got a full-back who can catch pigeons, as the saying goes. You don’t want to give him time because he’s super fast.”
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