Super League’s greatest EVER fairytale as Wakefield Trinity smash the glass ceiling

A little over three years ago, a video of vermin in Wakefield’s home dressing rooms did the rounds on WhatsApp.

At the same time, their training facilities were named ‘Dog S*** Park’, by their own players, due to faeces regularly being found on the pitch.

It was a club with no direction, no ambition and, seemingly, no future.

Relegation was an inevitability that had been lurking for years. They’d made a habit of being escapologists, but it always felt like when, rather than if. When they did go down, you wondered if you’d see them in Super League again.

And here we are, a few seasons later, with Wakefield in their first-ever Grand Final and first major final in 47 years.

That’s a tale remarkable enough. The fact that they did it by not just beating Wigan, but by giving them a good doing over on their own patch, turns this unlikely tale into a dream not even Matt Ellis would dare write.

Wigan, already domestic double holders this year, have treated semi-finals like processions in the last three years. They thrashed Hull KR in 2023 then pummelled Leigh in 2024 and 2025.

When the big games arrive, Wigan go to a new level. Well, little old Wakefield had ideas of their own here.

Make no mistake about it, this is Super League’s greatest fairy tale.

There have been some great ones over time, most notably Salford’s sensational run to Old Trafford in 2019.

But this surpasses that. It’s not only the fact Wakefield were in the wilderness two seasons ago, but it’s when you factor in the people involved.

There are some stars in this side, most notably Jake Trueman, Tom Johnstone and Mike McMeeken.

But surrounding them are players who, put bluntly, were complete and utter nobodies before they joined the club.

Caleb Hamlin-Uele now looks a shoo-in for an England call-up. He arrived after two seasons in New South Wales Cup with Newtown Jets.

His partner in crime off the bench, ‘Captain Chaos’ Caius Faatili, was playing for Sunshine Coast Falcons before being picked up by the Trin. Isaiah Vagana was picked up after one season playing for New Zealand Warriors’ reserves.

The list goes on and on.

Then there’s the coach, Daryl Powell. Over a quarter of a century in Super League and over 425 games in. He’s never won a Grand Final. He arrived, ironically, after being sacked by Warrington Wolves after just 18 months.

His stock was low after that, but Wakefield’s owner Ellis believed in him. Ellis is believing now alright.

This should never have happened. But it has. And now Wakefield are one win away from a Grand Final that surely even they never thought was possible.

It will finally be Warrington’s year or it will be the most unlikely of years.

Either way, the story is special.