Chris Chester has revealed that Wakefield Trinity are in talks with their three half-backs to extend their stays at Belle Vue beyond this season.
Liam Finn, Jacob Miller and Sam Williams are all out of contract at the end of the coming season; Finn and Miller were both at Wakefield last year, while Williams joined Trinity on a one-year deal from Canberra at the start of this season.
However, Chester confirmed that they are keen to tie down the Aussie duo of Williams and Miller long-term, while also revealing that they are in talks with Finn too about an extended stay.
Finn was offered the role of player-coach at Championship strugglers Dewsbury following the departure of previous Rams coach Glenn Morrison – an approach Trinity turned down.
“We’re probably a little bit further down the line with Liam,” Chester said. “But we also want to keep hold of Sam and Jacob. We want to tie them down to some long-term deals.”
Chester is optimistic of both Williams and Miller’s agents being in Newcastle for next month’s Magic Weekend so they can thrash out a deal with both.
“Both their agents are coming to the Magic Weekend so we can sit down face to face with them.”
Meanwhile, Chester has confirmed that prop Mitch Allgood is set for an extended spell on the sidelines with a broken hand. Allgood suffered the injury during the defeat to Wigan on Easter Monday, and the Trinity boss has revealed he will be missing for around six weeks.
“Mitch broke his hand in two places early in the second half but, being the guy he is, he ended up staying on and playing the rest of the game,” Chester said.
“He needs an operation to have a plate put in so he will probably miss four or five games. He’s been playing well so we’ll miss him but it gives an opportunity to the rest of the squad and Keegan Hirst will probably get some more game time.”
Chester could also hand a first start of 2018 to young full-back Max Jowitt on Saturday against Warrington. The 2016 Albert Goldthorpe Medal rookie of the year is yet to feature for Trinity this campaign, largely due to the form of Scott Grix since his arrival from Huddersfield.
However, Chester has hinted Jowitt could play this weekend as the club look to manage Grix’s fitness heading out of the busy Easter period.
“Max has been very professional,” Chester said. “He’s learned a lot from Grixy and had a few games out on dual-reg. He’s obviously been disappointed but, when Grixy is playing so well, it’s difficult not to play him every week.
“Hopefully if he gets an opportunity this week, he’ll take it with both hands. I’ll try to rotate this week because this is generally the game that catches you out over Easter from a fatigue point of view so it’s important we bring some fresh guys into the squad.
“Grixy has played every minute of every game and he’s not getting any younger. We’ve got to manage him over the next few weeks but we’ll decide on Friday the make-up of our team.
“I was going to rest him on Monday but he was adamant that he wanted to play and put a few wrongs right from the game at Castleford.” Jordan Crowther could also come into contention for Trinity.
