WAKEFIELD TRINITY are in a much better position than they were at the start of the season, despite recent injury setbacks, according to their coach Daryl Powell.
The West Yorkshire side are currently without long-term absentees Renouf Atoni, Caleb Hamlin-Uele, Ky Rodwell and Matty Storton, while Thomas Doyle, Jake Trueman and Oliver Russell have also missed recent games through injury.
Despite this, Powell’s men still have the play-off in their sights and came close to beating in-form Leeds Rhinos at Headingley last time out.
“We’ve got a decent list when you look at who we’re missing – it’s two halves and five or six forwards, but the other boys are doing the business,” said Powell.
“We’ve got players who are dropping into new situations all the time, people like Seth (Nikotemo) and Caius (Faatili) for example, who played well out there against Leeds in quite a bit of heat and in quite a hostile environment. But there are lessons there that will make them better players, which then makes us a better team.
“With every passing week this group is growing a little bit more confidence and the Leeds game was another tick in some boxes, whilst we know we still need to be better in some areas.
“We’ve ended up having a better squad than we thought we had at the start because some players have had opportunities to show themselves off. Guys like Josh Rourke has taken his opportunity and Harvey Smith has played more games than he potentially might have done and they’ve taken those chances.
“That’s been the biggest positive out of the difficulty we’ve had.
“We’re in a great place and competing against pretty much everybody. Apart from the Saints game, the others could have all gone either way, so we’ve got to be happy with where we’re at.
“But we can also feel a bit disappointed because I know how good we can be.”