What's really disappointing is just how quickly they seem to have decided to throw the towel in. There was always the likelihood that the team in 12th place with 4/5 games to go until the split would kind of 'give up' and concentrate on the Middle 8's when they couldn't catch those ahead of them. But Wakey (after a good start of 4pts from 4) seemingly gave up by Round 6/7.

Carrying on like this will hit them quite hard financially because crowds will dwindle. They'll have to hope that away supporters turn up in good numbers because home fans won't. Their next home game is against Wigan, on Sky, on Thursday night. Wakey fans fearing another battering + the chance to just watch it on TV won't flock to the ground and obviously the away following will be impacted by it being a Thursday.

Also IF they survive the Middle 8's and return to SL next year.....how many Season Tickets will they sell for 2016? How many are going to rush to buy them when they'll consider that the team will possibly sack the regular season off again after just a few games?

100% correct!

Even if Websters plan works perfectly and Wakey win the middle 8. What's the point?

I know Wakefield don't have the resources to be a top team, but that's not what it's about. They should be going out and doing their best to give the fans something to cheer about. A couple of scalps against the big boys can make it all worthwhile. Who wants to see their team go through the motions every week so that they can survive to do it all again next year? The Wakefield fans aren't stupid, they know they don't have a team full of stars. I'm sure they would be happy just to have a team that was giving its all and providing a bit of entertainment, and they aren't getting that at the moment.

I didn't say which year

Someone get the DeLorean warmed up...

I think cas proved last season you dont need to be mega rich to do well, I'd say they did a bit more than just entertain last year they came close to winning 2 of the 3 throphies.
Do wakey have significantly less resources than cas? Or would a Powell type coach make such a huge difference?
Just because they don't have quite as much money doesn't automatically mean they should give up trying to compete

Agree with above. You don't have to be mega rich to compete.

If you've got a decent coach and a decent pair of HBs you do better than others in this league. Wakefield has neither.

Wakey are where most people thought they would be, however the no full time rugby league team should be losing 80 points to nil. IMO the main fault as to be with the players who look like they are lacking any moral fibre and backbone

It's an absolutely disgraceful way to run a club and I for one hope they get hammered in the middle 8's and relegated, for the good of RL if nothing else. Hopefully the chairman does the right thing and gets rid long before we reach that stage of the comp

Halifax next.....

For me, the only surprise is that people seem to be surprised. Even with the relative security of licencing, Wakefield were a basket case of a club.

I do feel some sympathy for Webster in this situation. Whilst he is arguably out of his depth at this level (and he's not the only coach to which that criticism could be leveled), I'm sure that he does have a degree of ambition and some big ideas for what he can do. Unfortunately, that ambition and enthusiasm seems to have been just sapped out of him by being in an environment that is absolutely shambolic.

His comments in post match interviews smack of a man just resigned to defeat. Last week he compared the relative squad values (although we'll ignore the fact that Leeds provided 13 academy graduates across the two teams that day - three of them playing for Wakefield) and this week, he's commenting on turnarounds to somehow excuse a 80-0 defeat.

Wakefield as a club need to really look at what they want to achieve. They're a club that has lurched from crisis to crisis and winding-up order to winding-up order, failing to grow crowds, failing to attract commercial revenue, failing to grow ticket revenue, failing to develop and retain talent. That's not a problem with Webster (and those who have gone before him), it's a problem with the succession of clowns who have tried to run that club.

I don't dispute that Wakefield as a club doesn't have its challenges, but so does every other club to varying degrees. Those challenges, however, shouldn't be so insurmountable that they can't put together a remotely competitive performance.

The most bizarre comment from Webster has to be this

"I hate looking for excuses but over the last month I think we have spent around two hours as a team training together, for the simple reason I don't have enough people to fulfil training."

It's a sad state of affairs then that a coach has to begin to teach full time players how to run pass and tackle

Seriously he should resign for his own sanity, I wouldn't want to coach any player who wasn't trying but taking money under full pretences.

People can accept players being beat providing the effort and commitment is obvious. It wasn't even a twinkle in the Wildcats players eyes

Admittedly, an eighty point thrashing doesn't sound particularly great. But listening to many in this thread you'd swear they haven't scored a point all season.

Given Wakey's squad and the injuries they've piled up I'd say they are pretty much where I'd expect.

All this talk about "resigning without pay" is complete tosh. In this league it's entirely possible for Wakefield to pick up two or three wins on the bounce (provided they get some players back). Which means they are back in the hunt.

I mean, it wasn't all that long ago they could have pulled off a great win against Saints.

more than they would in the championship. Which is why they are doing what they are doing. There might be some romance that some attach to going down swinging, but sometimes the pragmatic thing is to take a knee and fight the battle you can win.

Ill tell you one thing, Wakefield will go in to next year far more positive, with far more money, and far more season ticket sales if they lose the next 13 but they finish the season with 5 wins from 7, than they would going down having finished the first 23 rounds in 9th.

The only thing that matters to Wakefield this year is that they stay up, they are far more likely to do that by being better than 4 championship clubs than they are 4 SL clubs.

Who are all these injured players? Looking at the 17 that played this week, didn't seem to be full of kids that have never played before?