Wakefield Trinity chairman reveals why Willie Poching wasn’t kept on at the Super League club

It’s fair to say that Wakefield Trinity had an up and down year in 2022.

After starting horrendously and finishing magnificently, there were calls that head coach Willie Poching would be kept on after steering the club to safety.

The decision not to keep Poching on seemed even more curious when considering that Trinity were bottom after the Magic Weekend.

However, chairman John Minards has revealed just why that decision was made, with Mark Applegarth being appointed to the role.

“It’s been frustrating because we’ve seen really good stuff but some stuff that hasn’t been good,” Minards said.

“The limit of our ambition isn’t to finish tenth or 11^th, we feel we can finish a lot further up. We have ambition in the club, we see it in the players.

“It was a very difficult thing to tell anyone that we are making a change.”

Minards also revealed that there had been plans in place following a review to see what was out there.

“It is one of the hardest things you ever have to do. It was particularly difficult because of the high regard with which we have for Willie.

“This is about the business and the club is bigger than all of us. It was a very tough decision. As a result of a review we did in confidence and which will remain in confidence. We will not go into detail about that.

“We looked widely, we went through this process over 12 months ago too. We knew what was out there then and what has changed in that time.

“This was not a pre-meditated situation and we had a proper look. We talked to a lot of people whether to change or not.

“We certainly weren’t going to make a decision to release someone if we didn’t have someone there.

“We believe that this is the right person.”