I know this is long but I thought it was worth including all the detail I could remember.
Firstly, it was good to see it was a full house. So some nice takings at the bar and from those that ‘controversially’ needed to pay the £10.
JM did the first part then we had a pie break, then Mash, Ford and Carter did a session where they took questions.
The first bit from John was a bit of a surprise but I was really glad he did. He welcomed everyone and said we were all welcome, but then explained some things aren’t welcome. That being abuse of players and staff. He then gave examples where someone had posted a video where he criticised Carter and finished saying he hope he died. Its quite shocking that people think that’s ok, in any situation but ridiculous about someone at a sports club.
He also explained about someone being blocked on Twitter after using abusive language about our disability team. Again, who does that these days?
The last one was the guy who threw the smoke bomb at Cas. They have been banned for life. Personally I’m really glad we took a strong stand on that. There will be some who don’t get it but if we are ever going to stop people doing it, that is the way.
He then went through strategy for the club, with the tag line that we are still targeting Super League survival this year and we think it is still within our control to do so.
He put a few slides up to explain the financial position of where we were when we had winding up orders, how we progressed and then how we are handling the vastly reduced Sky income over the past couple of seasons.
He finished by saying they are aiming to get £500k a year out of the new stadium, which would plug the gap left by Sky money.
He explained the IMG breakdown and he took a couple of questions to clarify that. Carter explained later that he hopes the Academy and other teams will be a minimum criteria to stop the likes of Salford skipping that cost and spending it on a Brodie Croft.
He also made a point that they very much care about the club and although not everyone agrees with every decision, the decisions are made in the best interests of Wakefield Trinity
I can’t remember any other big questions apart from Richard from RW&B asking about the club shop location. They fancy having a better shop at the ground but are working with Ridings management about the club shop in town too.
And a question about the western terrace and south stand. John explained they would have liked to do Western terrace, with an extended roof across the whole section but that it would be over a million and that they decided to concentrate on the North stand instead as it was more of an issue. South Stand (block of flats) will remain as it is a good view and a good money earner. The seats in front they haven’t decided but at they are rented they would only be necessary if we start filling the new stand which has over 2,500 seats. He said away supports would be in the new stand at south end, and pay a higher price to sit there.
After the break (again, there were loads of pie for everybody and it was really nice) Mash, Fordy and Carter took the stage for questions about the playing side.
Mash did a little introduction to explain that he’ll answer any questions but couldn’t get into any personal questions about players. Which I think was fair enough.
One of the first questions was about Corey Hall. It was a bit of a spikey question but Mash handled it really well. Effectively he said what he’d already said but that we needed a fullback and all other avenues were turned down. They tried for Shaul and Escare but were turned down flat. Hull KR knew we needed someone and said they wouldn’t take cash, only Corey Hall. So although they knew they were being played a little bit, they decided to take it as fullback was causing us a problem and we were covered at centre. The person who asked the question pushed a bit about Kay filling the role but both Mash and Carter explained that was just not tenable. They praised Kay for stepping in but just the fact that he dropped so much ball in the game he covered, leaving us exposed, indicated they needed to make a change.
They talked about Gale being a good influence on the club and that they wanted him to play but with Smith playing so well against Warrington, its made the decision really hard this week. They explained that Smith was still developing and they knew he was going to improve slowly through the season rather than just jump straight in at the top.
He didn’t actually confirm who would play tonight but we’ll find out soon enough. They said they decide who kicks on a weekly basis rather than allocate it for the season and the players make that decision between them in training.
Someone asked why we didn’t go for Gale at the beginning of the season and they explained it was a cost issue. He isn’t at the same price now that he was then.
There was also a question about Ashurst and whether he was right to be captain which created a lot of discussion about leadership. They said they were happy with Ashurst but that they wanted more leaders in the team and Gale was a part of that. They used examples of last year with the number of leaders in Miller, Fifita, Arona and Batch mentioned and Mash talked about the leaders in the team when he played like JD, Solomona, Domic. They want to get back to that but that it is a long process to develop that. But he is trying to do that by changing the culture a bit.
The was a question about why we are not playing the kids like Windrow, which Mash explained by saying you can’t just throw them in if they are not ready. He explained that even Wigan dipped when they tried to play too many kids at the same time and he didn’t have the team to support them at the moment, but was full of praise for Pratt and Law saying they would be massive in future.
Someone tried to have a dig about Max Jowitt after he was talked about so much as being the missing link but it wasn’t well received by the room. Mash looked quite baffled when they said his defence wasn’t good enough and tried to explain all the different jobs the full back has to do in modern rugby but they guy didn’t get it.
They explain the Shaw and Croft issue and said they would continually review whether it was still worth paying them but it was there to protect our academy players and didn’t want to be seen to cave and invite people to just come and take what they liked. We have kept their registration but they could only play for us if they accepted a new contract, which they haven’t so far.
Question was raised about MC’s replacement at the end but they said they would be able to confirm at the end of the month. John explained it was not a like for like change and that the roles would be slightly different.
There were a few compliments about Carter from the audience which got a good round of applause, probably in response to the grief they explained at the beginning.
Personally I thought it was really good, without being ground-breaking news. I haven’t changed my mind about Mash. He is the guy to take us forward, whether its in Super League next year or not.
