Ok so that is this season over! Congratulations to Chris Chester, all the players and directors for what has been a very successful season! We have made massive strides on the field this year compared to last and managed to retain the services of some of the hottest young property in Rugby League!

As for next season i believe the following leave our squad:
Scruton, Anderson, Walton, Hall, Tansey not sure what's happening with Owen and Annakin?

We so far have confirmed Hirst and Caton - Brown.

Not sure if I have missed anything else but feel we must add some size to our pack, half back and centre. Looking forward to seeing how the squad develops.

Time to buy those season tickets and hopefully fabulous new merchandise!

Roll on next season!!

Pretty much agree with that Jambon.

As for additions if salary cap allows maybe an extra half back along with the incoming one, but one that can provide a bit of utility value covering full back or hooker

According to Twitter we have signed an overseas due to visa being approved. Interested to see who this signing is.

First time I've posted on here, so hello to one and all.

If someone had offered me top 8 and a semi final at the start of the year, I'd have bitten their hand off! Added highlights such as Tom Johnstone's try against Hudds at BV, the 62-0 v Wigan, and seeing our young homegrown players coming into the team and not looking at all out of place in SL, were the icing on the cake for me.

Got my season ticket for next year, and am looking forward to seeing who will be signing for us in the coming weeks.

Finally, so pleased that we are going back to our "real" name and playing simply as Wakefield Trinity now.....looking forward to seeing (and buying) the new Trinity branded merchandise!

Congratulations to all at the club on a successful season!

My take on this season on the playing front is that it has been a massive improvement on last season, but we have to make a similar step next year to avoid the dreaded middle 8s and to be at least competitive in the top 8.
In reality, we've had a slice of luck this year with the goings on at Leeds, Huddersfield and Salford and we were able to take the opportunity. Last year we were mid championship standard, this year we were bottom 2 SL standard (over the course of the season). We have been given a chance to stabilise the club and progress.
Next season will probably determine the medium term future of the club. Get into the top 8 and the future looks promising, return to the middle 8s and we're likely to be there for some time, either from above or below.
The return of Uncle John and the breathing space given by a longer planning period will, hopefully, give us the start we need. Our target for next season must be getting the requisite 10 wins as quickly as possible.
Already looking forward to the first game of 2017 at LSV versus the newbies.

Up to the CC semi final it was an awesome season - after that a major damp squib, have to say I'm glad it's over.

But, overall mission well accomplished and a few super 8's wins would have been great but hey ho.

How this season finished felt like putting an old dog down. Yes it was great to get to the semi final, and make the eight, but any other club wouldn't just be happy with making the eight (except maybe for the one that gets relegated this year). Injuries or no injuries, I think our attitude since we qualified for the super eights wasn't great.

Give over that's not what you were saying at the start of the season when you said we were certain relegation material.

For heavens sake give this team some credit will you. A fairly limited set of players managed to secure us SL status with some great performances thrown in, but it was clear that after Catalan away there was nothing left in the tank - but for me they had done all that was asked and once the injuries set in what the hell did you expect.

Even despite this there have been no out and out humiliations like last season we just faded away.

The positive for me is that most player I suspect didn't take their foot off the gas out of laziness but so as to preserve themselves for next season which I feel they are all very much up for.

Lets be realistic, why put it on the line for nothing when you can put it all into hitting the ground running next season (for a change). I know which I'd prefer and luckily I think we've got through the 8's without picking up any pointless injuries - I'd have been gutted if we had.

Go on holiday lads, enjoy and come back refreshed and then remember those heady mid season days and what was required to win those games and work hard.

Oh and I reckon Salford and HKR would of happily accepted our season don't you - really dumb thing to say there mate.

Good first post mate. Like you say if we were offered a top 8 and a CC semi at the start of the season, every single Trinity fan would have bitten their hand off. Coming from where we were last season to this, has been a colossus turn around. Yes it would have been nice to maybe of won the last 2 games where we probably should have done but it doesn't change what a great turn around it's been for us.

Season started badly, got much, much better in the middle and was bad at the end again - 'Mrs Ann Elk'

There is a big challenge for the coaching team to show that they weren't riding a wave that was borne of Brian Smiths era. We certainly rode it well, if that's what it was, and much credit is due to them for that. The fact that we were back playing better and at least competing in the last 3 weeks, is encouraging, but whether it is through recruitment or through conditioning or just coaching, we have to be able to raise the bar by game 1 next year.

We will no longer be a surprise package and more sides have now had a taste of the middle 8's, which they won't like. So to all involved, go and enjoy your hols, mad Monday and all that, but be prepared - because we have to prove our worth in the competition all over again.

Season score as a whole 8/10. From where we were 12 months ago 10/10.

At the beginning of the season the objective would have been to avoid the million pound game, with the minimum objective being to win the million pound game.

Not only have we avoided the million pound game, but we avoided the middle 8 completely. We've won at Headingley. We've beat Catalans in Newcastle and Perpignan. We beat Huddersfield not once, not twice but three times in one season. We usually beat Huddersfield three times every 10 years. We beat Wigan 62-0 and were about 10 seconds away from winning away too. We beat a Super League team in the Challenge Cup for the first time in 12 years and got to the semi final for the second time in 37 years. Granted we were a bit crap in the semi final and the run of games after that but we had a lot of injuries and don't exactly have a large squad anyway, and we've seen in the last three games that once we've got a few players back we've been reasonably competitive despite having absolutely nothing to play for. We'll have to be better next season as I'd be surprised if the teams below us are as bad as they were this season but at the end of the day we've given ourselves a great platform to build on. When we started playing well in April/May we had a load of players signing new deals as it was pretty obvious we were too good to go down this year and then when we did secure our survival in July we've basically had a 3 month head start on our recruitment from where we were this time last year. Hopefully now we can get some signings announced in the next couple of weeks/months and get some good news about the ground.

Overall, it's been a pretty good year all things considered.

Good post.

Spot on assessment

I'm pretty certain the players didn't stop playing.
There were a lot of players having to play with injuries of various kinds and it affects the team there is no doubt.

They did what they set out to do.

And even when we were getting beaten in the 8s, we were playing better than any game in the previous two seasons.

Roll on next year. Can't wait.

Great Season ! exceeded expiations' by far... good job all the team on and off the field.