“I CAN’T wait to now get started with the task in hand of getting the club back into Super League and at the top end of the table challenging for trophies.”
So said Matt Ellis in his first public comments as the owner of Wakefield Trinity, a few weeks shy of three years ago, the start of a dramatically escalated five-year plan to bring major silverware to the city for the first time since the 1960s.
Cue much laughter across the Rugby League land. Wakefield? Challenging for trophies?
That reaction, though, was perfectly logical.
Since Rupert Murdoch’s dollars spawned Super League – and for a good bit before that, mind – there was an order, and that order was not to be disturbed.
If you had the best infrastructure, supporter base and – perhaps most importantly – youth system, you could sit at the top table. For some or all of that time, Bradford, Leeds, St Helens and Wigan could boast that.
Other clubs could work hard, play well, grab a Challenge Cup, maybe even finish top of the table. But winning when it mattered, through the play-offs and most of all in the Grand Final, was always a step too far for reasons nobody could quite put their finger on.
At the start of every season coaches and players would say this year could be their year. It never was.
When the ceiling was finally smashed, it was a different kind of success, achieved by Hull KR under solicitor Neil Hudgell and now Wakefield under kitchen magnate Ellis.
They are the new face of Super League, owners who have put a lot of money into their clubs – in the case of the latter, to the estimated tune of £10 million already.
This isn’t buying success by any means – the salary cap requires smarts, making director of rugby Ste Mills perhaps their most significant figure beyond Ellis himself.
Like Hull KR, Wakefield have also invested heavily off the field on stadium enhancements, player facilities and staffing, to ensure their position towards the top becomes a permanent one.
But while the Robins’ progress to the top was a grind, and involved some heartache along the way, Trinity have shot from promotion to the title in two staggering years.
It is, quite simply, the most heartwarming tale Super League has yet provided.
It’s a sweet success for Daryl Powell, whose coaching career began 30 years ago and has taken in four major final defeats. No longer the bridesmaid, his credentials as one of the elite coaches have been confirmed – and a point well proven to old employers Warrington in the process.
Then look through their squad and the good stories are everywhere.
Super subs Caleb Hamlin-Uele and Caius Faatili, plucked from Australian factories to tear Super League to shreds.
Jake Trueman completing the season of his life after years of injury agony.
Lachlan Walmsley winning a Grand Final with no idea where he’ll end up next year.
Jay Pitts, at 36, playing and winning his first Grand Final in the last game of his career.
Other loyal servants in Max Jowitt and Mason Lino enjoying richly-deserved success before their own goodbyes.
Zac Lipowicz, signed only six weeks ago as injury cover, now leaving for Perth – with Tyson Smoothy – as a champion.
And of course Jack Sinfield winning it front of his dad Kevin – although don’t forget Isaiah Vagana emulating his old man Joe as well.
Not one of Wakefield’s squad had won the trophy before. Only two had even played in the Grand Final – Tom Johnstone and Mike McMeeken – while Smoothy had won the NRL’s twelve months prior. Perhaps it’s little coincidence they were arguably the three best players out there.
Most of all it’s a good story for the supporters, who assembled in numbers unseen in many of their lifetimes. Such has been the speed of the club’s rise, even the youngest followers know how rare and precious this day was.
But this isn’t just Wakefield’s success. It’s a success for the players, coaches and fans at every other club who have experienced years, decades even, of struggle and strife, who have been destitute, who have been laughed at.
Wakefield can do it, and perhaps now so could anybody else.