Super League coach admits it is sometimes tough for coaches facing the press

Last week Mark Applegarth faced the press after his Wakefield Trinity side lost for the ninth game in a row.

He was not a happy bunny and addressed that this week ahead of their game against Wigan Warriors saying it is sometimes tough for coaches to face the press shortly after a defeat.

He said on BBC Radio Leeds:

“Sometimes you come into press and I think it was just 20 minutes after going through it and the frustration for me was how we started that game in terms of our intent.

“We were pinning Leigh in their own 30 which was exactly what we’d talked about, and obviously we’re not turning it into points yet and you can see the lads getting jittery.

“We’ve identified without going into personal stuff a few issues within the team in terms of individuals who weren’t doing their job as they should.

“We had some pretty brutal and honest conversations like most teams do have after things like that.

“I think my words probably didn’t come across right but when I said we needed to build a team around the sorts of efforts of Lee Kershaw and Jai Whitbread, what I meant was that they never give up on lost causes.

“You can see how much it meant to them and that’s kind of what we’ve highlighted on video, it’s that never say die attitude and working hard for each other.

“Let’s not forget about the elephant in the room, we’ve absolutely got to start scoring points. The reason you’re seeing so much frustration is because there’s a certain defensive intent going in and if you’re not seeing a reward for that straight away, and you haven’t scored then you can see that sense of frustration getting to us.

“We’ve just been working on our attack and making sure we’re clinical in our skill. I think some of our decision making when we’ve had a four vs three or three vs two hasn’t been good enough.

“We do need to get better and there’s no hiding away from the fact. Being the head coach I’ve got to take responsibility for that and I will get it sorted.”