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It used to be the case that turning up at Wakefield’s Belle Vue home was like entering a time warp.
The setting visible in Richard Harris’ 1963 classic ‘This Sporting Life‘ was the very same one observed almost 60 years later, barring the affectionately named ‘Benidorm flats’ corporate boxes. The faded blue, white and red paintwork, the ageing outhouse toilets, the tired concrete paddock steps.
It was a nostalgic relic of a bygone age. Those sepia days were successful ones for Trinity and yet while the ground might have looked the same, the team certainly did not.
Legends such as Derek ‘Rocky’ Turner, Harold Poynton and the famous Fox brothers had carried Wakefield to Wembley glories and silverware galore, but they were deep in the past.
It felt like change might never happen. But, in an unlikely sequence of events, it has.
Wakefield Trinity has a vibe about the place, a buzz, a crackle of energy and excitement. There is a rapidly improving stadium, complete with new multi-purpose stand.
They had to go backwards to come forwards, and now there is a spring in the step after being re-admitted to Super League for 2025.
Their opening-round win at Leeds sets them up perfectly for the visit of Hull KR and the return of top-flight rugby to the city this weekend.
New owners, new outlook
To say that owner Matt Ellis has come in and transformed Wakefield is unquestionable.
The kitchen business owner and fan has changed the mentality, overhauled facilities and importantly appointed the right people on the football side to obtain results.
Relegation from Super League in 2023 meant Trinity had to start again, clearing the decks on the personnel side to rebuild and regroup.
At the heart of his vision was to bring in a coach with a track record of improving clubs from difficult positions, a man who had turned Featherstone into winners, transformed Castleford from cannon fodder to contenders.
Daryl Powell was the target, and Ellis got him on board, following the 59-year-old’s departure from a tough stint at Warrington.
“To start with a blank canvas and go again, I didn’t need to reinvent myself but I needed to re-energise myself,” Powell told BBC Radio 5 live.
“Last year we built a squad eventually that was outstanding; we worked hard. One of the first people I employed was Ste Mills as recruitment manager and having someone who completely focuses on that has been awesome to be honest.
“It allows me to just look after the team and the boys and make sure they function in the right way.
SWPIX“The whole thing, Matt’s attitude towards it all, a club needing a complete rebuild, was perfect for me and I’m glad to be having another opportunity with a great group of people to have a crack at Super League.”
The work of Michael Carter, John Minards and the previous regime set the wheels in motion for the new East Stand, but Ellis has built on that by enhancing Wakefield’s facilities and there are further plans to revamp and improve.
“A whole lot has changed, the stadium itself is a huge change and some of that was down to the previous owners who did some work there but Matt is making sure it’s the whole stadium,” Powell added.
“That will take time but it does feel completely different. If you were at the [Championship] Grand Final where it was a full stadium and an iconic moment when Jerry [retiring player Jermaine McGillvary] kicked the goal, it felt like a club that was going somewhere.”
Bringing back pride, and old favourites
The return to Super League came after a 2024 season in which Wakefield won a Wembley final in the 1895 Cup competition, stormed the Championship and beat Toulouse on the aforementioned raucous Grand Final night at the DIY Kitchens Stadium back in October.
Improvements to the stadium, the investment of Ellis and success on the turf all transpired to allow Trinity to meet the IMG criteria and points threshold to make their top-flight comeback.
It was news that reached the club while the squad was on a post-season trip to Dublin, meaning Powell’s favourite tipple tasted all the sweeter.
Recruitment had already been earmarked with such ambitions in mind, including England internationals Mike McMeeken and Tom Johnstone, both secured from Catalans Dragons.
Johnstone, 29, was a particularly sweet coup for Trinity, as it meant a homegrown player was back in their midst, having scored 87 tries in 116 games in his first stint.
“The main thing for me is the mindset of the club; they want to succeed,” Johnstone told BBC Sport. “It used to be, every year, ‘let’s not finish bottom’. Now it’s ‘we want to win’.
“Matt [Ellis] described it to me as a sleeping giant, a team that won everything in the 1960s and it has fallen away since. He wants to see Trinity back at the top, he’s recruited really well and it’s something we can look to do.”
SWPIXJohnstone’s return is a powerful message that Wakefield are keen to make an impact, and future retention will be built around a core of self-produced talent as well as outside recruitment.
“We don’t want players like Tom Johnstone or Corey Hall to leave,” underlines Powell. “We’re pretty determined if young players come through the system, we want to keep them at the club and make sure they can compete to win things within what we’re doing.
“It’s the long-term plan. Tom coming back in, signing Mike McMeeken, Jake Trueman, Cam Scott, we’ve signed a whole host of experienced Super League players and a couple of international players obviously.”
‘We can be a challenge for any team’
Saturday’s 14-12 win over a much-vaunted Leeds suggested Wakefield have the ingredients to make a fist of their Super League opportunity in 2025.
Max Jowitt has taken his 2024 form, which saw him break points-scoring records at Trinity, into the new season and Trueman looked revitalised and, most importantly, fit, having been reunited with old Castleford mentor Powell.
Plenty of fans witnessed the impact on Headingley’s Western Terrace, and even more are expected to pass through the turnstiles on Thursday to welcome their Trinity heroes and turn up the heat on last season’s runners-up.
“We want our fans to generate that feel around the stadium every time we are at home,” Powell added.
“This Hull KR round-two game is a fair old challenge five days out from Leeds, but we know what it is, we’re confident we can go and be a challenge for any team that we play against.
“We’re not going to win every game, but we’ll go there with a will and a confidence that we can.
“We need to get into it, get a feel for where the team’s at, but you don’t know until you start getting belted around the field and see how you manage the tough challenges that are being thrown at us.”
