Wakefield Trinity boss admits to 'difficult' selections as Tray Lolesio loan move to Bradford Bulls explained
Boss Daryl Powell admits it was a tough job selecting his side for tomorrow’s (Friday) home showdown with Leigh Leopards.
Hooker Tyson Smoothy is available after a two-week concussion layoff so Powell has close to a full-strength squad to choose from, though half-back Mason Lino faces at least two more weeks out of action with a hamstring injury. And speaking at his weekly preview press conference today, he confirmed it has been “probably the most difficult [team selection] for a fair while”.
Powell said: “We had a lot of injuries to deal with last year and a lot of periods when the selection was pretty easy. It has certainly been tougher this week and I am hoping it stays that way. Every coach wants that. There have been a few decisions and calls and some of them are quite difficult to make.”
Powell has outlined his thinking to the players who will miss out. He added: “The main thing is to give some kind of rationale as to why you are making those calls. I think if you do that, even though sometimes you have to agree to disagree, the players have an understanding of why they are not in the team.
“They are the most important things for me as a coach. Sometimes you have to say ‘the decision’s made, it is what it is’. All I want from players is to pressure people that are in the team, then we’ve got a really vibrant training atmosphere that gets the best out of everybody.
“I think we have got that at the moment, we’ve got a high-quality group of people first and players second. We want to keep that vibe and intensity.”
Powell confirmed Smoothy, an NRL Grand Final winner last year with Brisbane Broncos, will play tomorrow. He returns to Trinity’s 21-man squad in place of front-rower Tray Lolesio who has joined Bradford Bulls on a one-week loan.
Lolesio moved to Trinity from Australian club Redcliffe Dolphins in pre-season and played against Swinton Lions in the Challenge Cup last month, but is yet to make his Super League debut. He is expected to do that for Bulls against Huddersfield Giants tomorrow and Powell explained: “He needed to play.
“We had a reserves game called off last week against London, which was disappointing. He was going to get minutes in that and this is a great opportunity. I spoke to [Bulls coach] Kurt Haggerty the other day, I am not sure whether he will start him or he’ll come from the bench, but it’s a good opportunity for him to play Super League and get a taste of it. Hopefully he will do well for Bradford and will be great for us as well.
“We’ll see what happens after this week. We don’t know where Bradford are going to be with players coming back from injury and where we’ll be at so we’ll just play it by ear after that.”
Three other Trinity players have gone to Betfred Championship clubs on similar deals. Kian McGann and Myles Lawford are set to play for Halifax Panthers against North Wales Crusaders on Sunday and Ellis Lingard has linked up with Dewsbury Rams ahead of their game at Workington.