Mark Applegarth responds to fan frustration

Wakefield Trinity have had to do some bold business this week due to their continuing injury problems.

They have of course brought Huddersfield Giants winger Innes Senior back to the club on loan but the big move saw them saw exciting young centre Corey Hall for Will Dagger of Hull KR.

Speaking on BBC Radio Leeds, Mark Applegarth reacted to the frustrations of fans about losing Hall to get Dagger in:

“Listen in an ideal world I keep Corey and I get Will Dagger in, but we’re not in an ideal world, we’re in the real world.

“I fully understand the fan’s frustration and my job as head coach of the club is to come up with solutions to options that get presented to us, and that’s what option I got presented with and I felt it was the right thing to do in terms of us getting a full-back in.

“Anyone watching our games can see that our attack has been very clunky and we’ve been lacking a bit there.

“I thought Liam Kay has done a job when he came in but he’s not a full-back and he’ll be the first one to tell you that. Then Robbie is a young kid that probably needs dipping in and out which we can’t afford to be doing at moment in time with how things are panning out so far.”

He also addressed fan frustration over signings:

“I’ve tried staying out of the press and blaming injuries because I don’t like that victim mentality, I think it’s weak. But the facts are we need to get some bodies in so yeah we’ve been as proactive as we can.

“When you look out there, who do you go for? Let’s just say we had a magic pot with £100 grand in it, you can’t just say ‘we’ll go get these players’, because them players aren’t out there.

“The players that are out there are contracted to other clubs and naturally other clubs are a business themselves. They’ll do what’s right for their business, if they don’t think they can offset their loss then they won’t make that asset available.

“100% I get the fan’s frustration, I share it at times. Objectively they can rest assured that we are doing what we feel is right for Wakefield Trinity, in the short term and the long term health of the club.”