Wakefield Trinity offer perfect IMG blueprint but nod should go to club’s tireless past servants

You certainly cannot accuse Wakefield Trinity owner Matt Ellis of not being a man of his word.

When he took over the club following their relegation at the end of 2023, he promised there would be change like Trinity fans had never seen before – both on and off the field.

Of course, those who were there throughout last year’s record-breaking Championship season will have seen that proof first-hand. But here, live in living colour and in front of the nation, was the conclusive proof everyone needed.

This is a club completely and utterly transformed. And it clearly starts – and is headlined by – the DIY Kitchens Stadium. New name, new look: and for those of us who remember sitting in the rickety old wooden main stand, it doesn’t really feel like you’re in the same stadium at times.

Wakefield have made no secret of their intent to follow the same journey as the likes of Leigh Leopards and Hull KR, who have not just come up from the Championship and aimed to survive: they have thrived. In the case of Leigh, they have gone on and won a major trophy, too.

Of course, on the field here the headline was that this was probably an important lesson for Daryl Powell and his squad about the work that is still to be done, and the lesson about fine margins at the highest level was taught by one of those two clubs who have trodden a very similar journey in the recent past.

But from what we have seen in the first 160 minutes of Wakefield’s season, we know that they are unlikely to be scrapping at the bottom of the table.

18 months ago, Wakefield’s final game in Super League before relegation saw Hull KR score over 50 points and romp to victory in front of 4,710. Here, the biggest crowd this stadium has attracted for 17 years saw a much, much closer game which underlines the journey Trinity are on.

They’re not quite contenders yet, but they have the capability to grow into that role in the coming years without question.

Which takes us to what’s happening off the field. Whatever you think of IMG’s criteria, it has kicked clubs up the proverbial backside and forced them to get their house in order. Wakefield were starting to do that anyway, with plans confirmed for a new main stand long before IMG arrived in rugby league.

But the finer points – the LED boards, the big screens – all the things that make a venue feel really impressive.. that’s Wakefield acknowledging they had to do better if they wanted to be considered a big club.

They are a blueprint for what the system is all about, and what it aims to deliver: raising standards off the field, as well as on it.

Ellis, Powell and everyone currently at Wakefield Trinity deserve huge credit for that. But so too do the people who came before them.

For years, Wakefield effectively lived hand-to-mouth and were Super League’s best-run club. If they had a pound in the bank, they’d spend 50p just to be sure. Because the end goal was always a redeveloped Belle Vue, which Michael Carter and John Minards managed to get over the line started before they sold the club to Ellis.

That previous regime certainly doesn’t have the glitz and glamour of what we are seeing now – but they have played just as important a role in many ways. Without those sustainable, tough years, Wakefield don’t get to the point where they’re able to be purchased by an excellent owner in his own right in Ellis.

Carter, Minards and Ellis are all different operators in different ways – but they’re all custodians Wakefield have been lucky to have. That is emphasised now with Ellis’ undoubted enthusiasm for taking Trinity back to the top of the sport. He is a credit to his club and the game.

And in that tough, unforgettable – for all the wrong reasons – year of 2023, the seeds were sown for a lot of what we have seen here too thanks to the work of Mark Applegarth.

Applegarth will go on to become a Super League head coach again one day. That job was perhaps too early for him, but Wakefield needed him. And he exposed players to tough situations that he knew his successor would be able to capitalise upon: and Powell has continued that fine work.

There were eyebrows raised when Applegarth handed Max Jowitt a new three-year deal. Wakefield have just extended that yet again after his career has continued to flourish under Powell’s leadership.

Oli Pratt and Harvey Smith were thrown into the first-team mix. Now, they look bonafide Super League players – Pratt in particular was excellent on Thursday evening up against Oliver Gildart. That may have been considered a mismatch at one point: not now.

And that, in a nutshell, encapsulates the story. Wakefield felt like a club not on the level of so many teams on and off the field as recently as 18 months ago.

Now, they are anything but: and it’s those in charge now and immediately before this remarkable transformation that deserve a share of the credit.