Wakefield Trinity re-jig not over yet with club planning further on field and off field recruitment

It has been a big week for Wakefield with the bold yet quietly optimistic appointment of Mark Applegarth as Head Coach.

Lorded for his development of young players, no doubt playing a key role in the rise of youngsters like Lewis Murphy, Applegarth may be the ideal coach for the West Yorkshire club as he looks to lead them back up to the table after a recent decline following three consecutive seasons in the top eight from 2016-18.

But with Applegarth now appointed, the work does not stop with Trinity looking to recruit star players to enhance their squad as well as the right coaching setup around Applegarth especially after assistant Francis Cummins followed Head Coach Willie Poching as he left the club.

On recruitment, Applegarth focused on the players he has now and the process behind working out who they need to bring in: “I can tell you from a coaching perspective we still have many talented players on our books. Obviously we’ll identify some gaps where we feel we’ll strengthen.”

Meanwhile John Minard – Chairman of the club – went more in depth identifying the World Cup as a key milestone in Trinity’s recruitment policy whilst praising the retention already done: “Jai Whitbread’s extension was really important to us, and we’re hopeful that there will be a number of others of those. We haven’t got many out of contract other than those who have already been announced that are moving on.

“This gives us plenty of fire power to go and recruit and that process has been continuous the changing coach doesn’t change that.

“There’s a World Cup this year, we don’t have to tie everything up this side of the World Cup. We have quota spots available and I think we’ll assemble a very talented squad.”

Minard later revealed that the club could make as many as five signings, but it is unclear as of yet who these five will be.

But the recruitment will not end there with Trinity set to add quality off the field as well as Minard confirmed: “We will be making further announcements about the coaching staff in the next few days, and of course there is the question of player retention and recruitment which will go on from here.

“It’s a really exciting time for the club”