“Whole culture” has to change says coach as he deals with “vicious 20-year cycle”

Wakefield Trinity’s Super League history is intriguing.

They have never suffered relegation and have enjoyed some impressive seasons in their time in Super League.

In 2009, 2017 and 2018 they enjoyed their highest ever finishes as they came fifth. In 2017 they really should have made the top four but it wasn’t to be.

In 2016-18 they finished in the top eight three years on the spin every time finishing above the then reigning Champions.

However, they have twice gone into the last day of the season knowing defeat could mean relegation in 2006 against Castleford Tigers and in 2019 against London Broncos.

They also edged Bradford Bulls in the 2015 Million Pound game to maintain their Super League status.

In recent seasons they have flirted with relegation.

This has led coach Mark Applegarth to say the club have been in a vicious cycle as he said the club needs to change the whole culture:

“We’re in that vicious cycle and  we have been since 2018, which I think was the last time we tasted a bit of playoffs, but we’ve then been hovering around them bottom spots.

“It’s the whole culture that needs a change so that we can break that five-year cycle that we’ve been in, and you could argue twenty-year cycle barring a few seasons here and there.

“Things are happening off the field and we’ve got to make sure that things happen on the field too.

“As a club we know we need to get better, I know I need to get better, the team know they need to get better and then we’ve got to set certain standards and if people don’t want to adhere to them or can’t then that’s when you make changes.”