Top half of the table certainly, i'd say, at least. Decent squad and coach who seems to know what he's doing.

I think a strong top 8 side, not top 4, but not too far off. A well coached team, very difficult to play however the performance last weekend wasn’t as expected. No longer a team who you look forward to playing against (not that recent results have helped that).

I’d all but give a limb to take Johnston and Fifita off your hands.

You've got a good chance this season and I wish you well. But, as a club you are a joke. How many long have you lied to the RFL and SL about your ground now? 5 years? Longer? Are you building a new stadium or re-developing Belle Vue? I forget so many lies have been spun. Isn't the last thing a conspiracy involving Wakefield council or something?

Your facilities are a joke, so much so, that I actually enjoy an away day to Belle Vue as it's a step back in time. Crumbling terraces, porta-kabin "boxes," half a roof over half a stand and that "grandstand." The vitriolic and really quite aggressive fans in the corner add a bit of zest too.

You're never getting a new ground (face it) and the slow, inexorable decline of your club will continue unabated. I'll be a little sad once you're gone, but SL needs a club that actually brings something to the table, rather than just barely surviving.

Well he said to be honest



In truth as much as Wakefield are a good side now by superleague standards, those standards have been driven down rather then up the league pleasing teams such as Wakey when they in fact should’ve been making teams improve and get up to the levels that Saints, Wigan, Leeds, Bradford, Wire etc were at.

People begged for years for a more even competition and now we have it but it’s even because the standard across the board is so poor. I can only hope that the delay in announcing the format for 2019 is due to somebody growing a set and driving a ruthless approach to which teams are and which aren’t suitable to drive the game forward.

I'd say underrated, but actually judging from the comments on here maybe not. I'd say good enough for the Super 8, not good enough for the play offs. Chance of making the CC final if you get a lucky draw, not something I've ever thought about Wakey before.

I think wakefield have built a good side which, providing they can remain fairly healthy will make the top 8 and have a chance of pushing for top 4.

As a club I’m not sure what the longer term future will hold, with the league probably looking to add the likes of Toronto, one or two US sides and possibly another French side I would imagine wakefield would be high on the list to drop out. Even if the stadium actually becomes a reality I can’t see the club attracting enough fans to sustain a SL side in the long term.

Good side to watch but it’s time,more than time for a stadium to be built,share if needs be,the current ground simply not fit for 2018

A big powerful pack and fast backs will give Wakefield a decent season.
Liam Finn can earn a couple of league places with his quality goal kicking.
There seems to be a good balanced team there with a star player in Tom Johnson and Finn to add the two.
5/6/7 placed at the season's end.

Sorry to the other posters because it's O/T but the highlighted bit especially needs putting straight

Cool story Suzy but just to clear something up for you, as you're throwing around some lies about. The Club have told no lies about a new Stadium ever, even going back 15 years or so when the Council promised to build a Leigh like sports Village in the park and then backtracked and said it was too expensive to do. Usually, when your Council and the government says a development is going to happen, you put that news out as fact. You also can't beat a supporter of a team slagging another side off because of Sadia, especially one that shares with a football club. Anyway, anyone with even a little understanding of how a new one gets built will understand the club are very much at the bottom end of things when it comes to one being built unless it's self financed and very few are. Have a look into Castleford's supposed new stadium is getting funded if you can be bothered.

It must have missed your attention that a developer got given about £80m worth of green belt land in Wakefield at Newmarket under a Section 106 agreement, which means they have to build something for the Community to get their hands on the land to build warehousing 7 years ago (it's how many stadiums have been built in this Country) they put in for planning permission for a brand new Community stadium along with 2 full-size MUGA pitches. They achieved this off getting 15,000 signatures agreeing that the Stadium and other community facilities would be good for the City as we have basically naff all. The Council passed it but it got called in by the Secretary of State but he then signed off on it and it was supposedly all go, Stadium built within 4 years. The deal was they were allowed to build 60,000 square feet of warehousing before they started on the Stadium etc.

Anyway, nothing got built for several years, on whats been called the best piece of commercial real estate on the M62, due to its situation and land available. Then amazingly without no one even at the Club knowing the developers put a separate planning application for a huge NewCold building that measured over 25k sqft. This somehow didn't count to any trigger point for the stadium, which the Council firstly didn't have to pass and secondly the didn't make it part of the trigger point towards the stadium. So in 7 years, they've built 1 warehouse that doesn't go towards the trigger point and created only 120 jobs, when we were promised by them and the Council a new Community Stadium and Facilities plus 2000 jobs. In the intervening years we've had the head of the council saying the whole project is nothing to do with them, then suddenly when our ground got sold to another developer, it does have something to do with them and at one stage told them to either get on with it or let another developer crack on with it. As a ratepayer in Wakefield, all this shows, at the very least we have a council that's at the least incompetent and secondly doesn't give a stuff about the people it's supposed to represent.

Now all of a sudden, after the developer Yorkcourt renewed their planning, which is still the same with the Stadium etc, we get offered some obvious money-saving offer to redevelop Belle Vue. This new offer was promised by the Council and the developer that owns Belle Vue along with Yorkcourt. They now say are they are going to front the money so Belle Vue gets done and recoups it off Yorkcourt off that development and space where the Stadium and 2 4G piches were going to be built, which was meant to cost around £12m in 2011. Why though when we have a stadium backed by the S of S supposedly getting built. Seriously you couldn't make this up and these are the guys running Wakefield and the people they do business with. But as Michael Carter said on the Radio Yorkshire Rugby League show last week, he's had no paperwork or anything from them to even look over, not a thing, even though it was promised for the end of January. So who's lying and promising things and not doing anything about it, it certainly isn't Trinity.

ATEOTD though even if a few million got spent on doing up Belle Vue the Council have let a developer get away with murder and that's why the Club was taking legal action against the Council, till this latest Belle Vue redevelopment suddenly came up, what a surprise hey. I bet if our owner doesn't hear some definitive plans in writing soon, I wouldn't be surprised if legal action will be taken.

If we end up getting nothing it won't be the complete fault of the club at all, they and a bunch of supporters who set up a Trust so a Stadium could be built have put in 1000's of hours free to get this thing done but for some reason a development that was rubber-stamped by the Secretary of state 7 years ago isn't gonna happen, ask yourself who's to blame. How come the likes of Leigh and Widnes can get Stadiums sorted (or whoever else got one built with the help of their local Council) but a City bigger than both can't?

So long story short, you're talking rubbsh. It's a long way to fall from that high horse Suzy.

Top 8 easy, top 4 will depend on injuries and squad depth same as everyone else.
I reckon Wakey are one of half a dozen clubs with a definite chance of silverware.

thats not true as about that time Horwich and Leigh were on about combining which happened and Leigh got loads of money for ground sharing

WTF are you talking about? I read a lot of excuses and conspiracies about the council and various developers scamming you, but the real reason is decades of mismanagement, which allowed you to find yourselves in the poor position you are in, frankly.

You invalidated your counter by going on to attack us about sharing a stadium with a football team, it's benefited us on the whole. I count two "professional" RL teams in your city and a semi-pro RL team (a small football team too?), why don't you give sharing a try? It might move you all out of the 19th century.

Feel free to come over and speak to the Council and give them a plan.

I seem to remember you playing second fiddle to Wigan Athletic when they were PL. Oh and remind me the state of Wigan when you were at the Riverside? Who bailed you out Tescos was it? Don't patronise Wakefield about ground shaes etc. etc. it will get sorted one way or another we have the best chairman in the league who has the upmost integrity, if Wakefield fail so be it. The gamecwill be worse off for it you can play Sts everyweek then!

I think you've got the wrong end of the stick, I was comparing what Wakefield Council was going to build in Thornes Park, where there is already an athletics track and big gym to what Leigh has, that's all.

Nah WTF are you talking about. You said this.

That's what you said and what I was mostly replying to so don't backtrack now. If you're talking about stuff you've read on the forum it's just that fans sounding off about the lack of action on the developments, like I said that was rubber stamped by the secretary of state about 7 years ago.

Can you genuinely sit there and say if you were in our position you wouldn't be kicking up a fuss, especially as it was a Community project as well? I mean seriously did you not read what I typed or just read the first paragraph and got all y.

Again the FACT is we were promised a stadium 7 years ago because a developer was getting 10's of millions of pounds of green belt land. You can check it on the Wakefield Council if you can be bothered, so I'm not sure where we have lied. The Club went to seek Legal advice and threatened action because of the complete lack of work being done on the site because the Council kept saying it wasn't anything to do with them when it obviously was. Then the Council suddenly have come out now and said they are developing Belle Vue with the money that was to be made on Newmarket, no there's nothing shady about WMDC. You would only know if you've lived here all your life though.

As the poster above said, there has been no offers or plans by the Council to build a stadium for everyone to share because they haven't the money, that's what they say anyway when the subject is brought up and why Trinity and Cas are trying to get Stadiums built attached to other developments, so again wtf are you talking about.

As for invalidating my point because I went on an attack on your ground share, no I just pointed it out that you had a decent sized football team to get in bed with and it was you do doing all the slagging off. If only Wakefield had one hey, I bet we'd have ours built years ago like you. Oh yes, I forget we have Ossett Town/Albion in the NPL North League LOL?.

True the Club was run crap in the past but so was yours at one point and maybe previous owners could have gradually done something but we've never had a wealthy owner or really been in a position to build anything new or properly update Belle Vue ourselves. Like other stadiums that get built nowadays, they usually have an S106 agreement behind them or you attach yourself to a supermarket build, or in some cases the Council sort you out.

I feel I just wasted 10 minutes of my time because it will fall on deaf ears.

You're confusing the City of Wakefield with Wakefield Metropolitan District. And there is no objection to ground-sharing. Location has always been the problem. Wakefield won't play in Castleford and Castleford won't play in Wakefield. It would be commercial suicide for whichever club lost its location. The two proposed grounds are in the other's territory. Would you share a ground with Leigh if it were in Leigh? It's the same argument. Both proposed new grounds are piggy-backing developments, so they are led by where the developers want a development, not where the clubs would like a ground.

The issue about mismanagement is a red herring. Even if it were the best run club in Super League, it would be a tough ask to conjure up 12 million for a new stadium. It would be the same situation. Name a sparkly new ground paid for by the club that plays there?

PS: there is a very strong argument that when you take into account its available resources, it is in fact the best run club in Super League.

Anyway....back to the original post....Wakefield once again looked good today, ground down a strong Huddersfield in less than great conditions...we are in for an extremely tough Sunday afternoon next week. I see Wakefield there and thereabouts this year pushing the top 4 very hard probably alongside us.

Should be a decent game at your place. Looking forward to it.

I’d have Wakey as favourites next week due to the size of their pack. It’ll take a big effort from our forwards to match them but if we can I’d back our backline to cause them some bother.

MASSIVE test for our props this week.

Sutton, Club, Flower, Isa, Tautai vs Hirst, Fifita, England, Pauli, Huby.

The size difference is evident.

Imagine us having fifita instead of Tautai or FPN.

Second best defence in the league, although I agree that you are our real test, as we've played four games we would normally earmark as potential winners. We haven't had to face a Sam Tomkins or George Williams yet.

Think you're underselling yourselves. After last season I doubt Wigan will let Trinity walk away with the points at the JJB this year. I think you'll have a straight forward win but who knows.

It would be hard to get it more wrong if you were a complete imbacile - oh wait....

We will have to play very well to beat Wakefield. They are basically exactly the type of team that we will struggle against. Big pack with excellent go forward and with the ability to bully teams, good balance in the halves Finn’s game management is outstanding and Miller offers the X factor and they have bags of pace and are not afraid to throw it about.

They also don’t leak points easily and a 1 dimensional attack will not break them down. They defended their line brilliantly today vs Huddersfield and their forward brought them off the line making big meters every set.

Huddersfield were poor but Wakefield didn’t allow them to play. Only positive for the Giants was Ikahahifo at Prop. What a player he is. Another one who has moved in the last 2 years and we really should have been looking at.

I don’t think it’s underselling us as such but more just saying how highly I rate Wakey this year. I see you as genuine top four challengers and at the minute your side is probably more settled then ours via the fact that those combinations between the spine of the team have been built for over a season now. We’ll have our work cut out in the front row to get on an even footing.

It looks an intriguing game.