Former Wakefield Trinity hooker joins new rival club ahead of 2024

Former Huddersfield Giants and Wakefield Trinity hooker Kyle Wood had announced his intention to retire at the end of 2023 after a two year spell with Halifax Panthers, but he has instead found himself a new club for the 2024 season.

Wood made his Super League debut at Castleford Tigers but is more widely known for his time at Huddersfield and Wakefield where he had two spells each in some of each club’s most successful seasons.

At the end of 2021, he joined Halifax helping them finish third in 2022 as well as winning the 1895 Cup Final at Wembley in 2023.

Having celebrated a testimonial, he was set to retire but has instead become the latest exciting signing through the door at Sheffield Eagles.

The Eagles are showing great ambition yet again and have drafted Wood into their ranks for the 2024 season.

The club are set to continue to improve on and off the field having had one of the most open and homest responses to their IMG grade.

They said: “Following the release of the RFL Gradings, Sheffield Eagles gave the fans, sponsors and stakeholders the opportunities to ask any questions on the RFL Gradings process from the club’s perspective.

“As a reminder, the Eagles scored 8.36 (which achieves a Grade B) and saw us ranked 22nd out of the 35 professional clubs.

“We remain in discussion with the RFL on a couple of areas, but with the release only being an indicative grading, we have time to ensure all is correct for 2024 release which will determine the competition placement of the men’s team in 2025.

“Competition placement is based on RFL Grading Points for the 2025 season onwards. Any club graded “A” (scoring 15 points or more) will be placed in Super League followed by the next highest ranking Grade B clubs. As clubs achieve higher points, places in Super League in future seasons will be allocated accordingly. There is still relegation and promotion between the Championship and League 1.

“Performance contributes 25% (5 points) in the RFL Gradings so the better the team performs, the more points will be scored in this section. There are bonus points for winning the 1895 Cup and the Championship Grand Final. Those points could be vital in the overall grading system.

“We also know that a well performing team attracts fans and sponsors and increases engagement, which benefits the other areas of the RFL Grading System.”

The club are also one of the few to reveal a breakdown of their IMG score:

Fandom – 2.45 (out of a maximum of 5)
Performance – 1.83 (out of a maximum of 5)
Finance – 1.30 (out of a maximum of 4.5)
Stadium – 0.78 (out of a maximum of 3)
Community – 2 (out of a maximum of 2.5)

The club are hoping to improve the performance pillar in 2024 and the signing of Wood will likely do that.