Wakefield coach identifies key improvement marker as confidence boosted ahead of play-offs

Wakefield boss Daryl Powell believes Trinity will show how far they’ve come in next weekend’s play-off tie against Leigh having put the Leopards to the sword in their own backyard on Friday night.

12 months ago, Leigh ended Wakefield’s 2025 campaign in a Super League play-off eliminator tie on home soil with a comfortable 26-10 victory.

Next weekend, the pair will clash at the same stage of the play-offs in a straight knockout tie again, but this time at Belle Vue, with Trinity having secured home advantage by beating the Leopards 19-8 on Friday night in the final round of the regular season.

With a fourth-place finish cemented, head coach Powell insists his side will be ready to repeat Friday night’s feat come next week.

‘I said before the game to the boys that tonight was partly about proving how far we’ve come’

Trinity had been top-two challengers for most of this season before a run of three straight defeats – against Leeds Rhinos, St Helens and Wigan Warriors – curtailed them.

Powell’s side though bounced back to win their last three games of the regular season, concluding with a controlled display at the Leopards’ Den.

Post-match, he admitted: “I said before the game to the boys that tonight was partly about proving how far we’ve come.

“We came here last year (in the play-offs) and got completely dominated in everything, really.

“How have we grown? Some of that is players coming in and some of it is that we’ve been able to toughen our mentality up a little bit.

“We’ll see next week (how far we’ve come), I think.”

Wakefield have established themselves among Super League’s best since returning to the top-flight last season, but still await their first major honours.

Earlier this year, their hopes of cup glory were shattered in heartbreaking fashion, losing a quarter-final tie 26-22 against Wigan, who have since gone on to clinch both Challenge Cup and Super League Leaders’ Shield.

Powell continued: “Tonight is a really strong win for us, but next week is where it really matters.

“The last time we got beat in a game like this (upcoming play-off tie), we got beat in a tough game against Wigan in the Challenge Cup, and we could easily have won.

“Next week is another step for us, another marker of assessing how good we can be and how good we are now.

“I thought tonight was great, but next week is where it really counts, and that’s when I think you’ll see how good we are.”