This article was first published in League Express. Read articles like this by purchasing the paper in stores every Monday or online at https://pocketmags.com/league-express-magazine/
Wakefield Trinity coach Chris Chester has promised he will send a competitive squad to Leeds next Monday for their first pre-season game of the new season.
Trinity look set to hand out a number of debuts to new signings for the game at Headingley, which is the traditional Boxing Day meeting between the two sides.
And Chester told League Express that after a strong pre-season thus far, he will aim to find the balance between blooding established first-teamers and some of the club’s exciting youngsters.
“I’ll be sending a pretty strong team over on Boxing Day,” he said.
“There are certain people who won’t play because they’re coming back from surgery, but we’ll go with a good team, I can promise fans that.
“We can play 21 of our squad, so there’ll be a mixture of senior guys and some young kids who have worked hard in pre-season; lads like Jordan Crowther, who are good young talents and have really improved in pre-season thus far.”
Chester also dropped a number of hints about the kind of new faces Wakefield fans could expect to see in a week’s time.
“Mason Caton-Brown, Sam Williams and Grixy (Scott Grix), they’re the kind of guys we could see playing for us for the first time,” he said.
“We’ll have a look at blooding these lads and I know for a fact they’re as excited about it as we are.”
And Chester admits he’s looking forward to seeing how his expanded squad responds to the increased competition in 2017 – with Wakefield possessing a squad of over 30 players.
“It’s certainly a much more balanced squad than last year,” he admitted.
“We had to rely on the young kids a bit too much last year and although it was a good experience for them, with the new guys coming in we’ve got genuine competition – I can’t wait to see how it makes everyone react.”