Trinity’s turbulent year
By DOUG THOMSON
Five things we learned from Wakefield’s season
1: They might have suffered many absences through injury and Covidrelated issues, making it difficult to put a settled line-up on the training field, never mind in matches, but Trinity, who survived a relegation scare in 2019, probably can’t afford another campaign as unproductive as this if they are to keep the Super League status they have held since 1999.
2: There is still some loyalty to a coach. Wakefield suffered ten straight defeats, one in the Challenge Cup, post-lockdown, and Chris Chester was coming under real pressure, not least from a section of the Trinity faithful. But Chairman John Minards and chief executive Michael Carter kept faith with the man who has been in the post since March 2016. Time will tell if they were right.
3: Wakefield have to get more out of David Fifita. At times during the 2020 season, the ‘Big Bopper’ looked far from a happy bunny, and there was that curious phase when the former Cronulla prop, who can be such a handful, refused to wear the GPS tracking device crucial to coronavirus protocols. That was one if the factors which restricted him to just eleven appearances out of 21 matches.