Trinity legend Jason Demetriou sends demand to Wakefield over relegation fight
He'll be watching more than 10,000 miles away but taking in every hit as his beloved Wakefield fires up The Great Escape 2.
South Sydney coach Jason Demetriou will always have a huge piece of Trinity in his heart. The uncompromising Aussie played almost 200 games for the club, earning legendary status, especially after helping them avoid relegation in 2006. That was the famous Great Escape when desperate Wakefield somehow survived, beating Castleford on the last night to condemn their derby rivals instead.
Bottom-placed Trinity had been huge 8/1 on relegation favourites when John Kear took over with just six games to go. Little wonder there was such sheer elation at the end. They’re bottom again and it’s Castleford once more they’re scrapping for survival. They meet at Belle Vue on Friday knowing it’s not all or nothing - there’s still six games to go - but as near as.
On those 2006 heroics, when Demetriou was among the try-scorers in a stirring 29-17 win, he recalled: “The great escape is probably the best way to describe it. Needing to win four from six having won six from 22 prior to that. The coach had been sacked, John Kear had just come in and we needed to beat Castleford twice. We managed to do that. It was a pretty impressive period for the club, the players all banding together and the supporters all got on board as well to achieve something that has kept the club in Super League ever since.”
Although the famous Battle of Belle Vue victory saved Trinity 17 years ago, the first game of that run - winning 18-0 at Castleford - was critical. Demetriou, 47, offered: “For sure. If we don’t win that - and we had two men off at one point - then we don’t stay up. It was that simple. We needed to beat Cas twice as they were three points ahead of us. I thought that was probably a better performance than the last game. The last game we started slow but controlled it pretty much from then on. But that performance at Wheldon Road just oozed the passion, resilience and commitment that was needed to start that block of six games.”
Gay rugby league referee lifts lid on how coming out affected officiating career
Hapless Trinity lost their opening 14 fixtures this year before winning four of their next seven and now only trail Castleford on points difference. The mid-season signings of Luke Gale, David Fifita and Will Dagger have been crucial to turning performances around while another - ex-Hull second-row Josh Griffin - is set to debut tomorrow after completing a seven-game ban for questioning the integrity of a match official. Trinity boss Mark Applegarth, in his first year as a head coach, has certainly had it tough but he’s given his squad a chance and knows all about these sorts of scenarios.
Wakefield's Jason Demetriou celebrates after scoring a try in the do-or-die 2006 relegation battle with Castleford (Getty Images)Demetriou, who was Trinity captain for five seasons, said: “He was in that squad back in ‘06. You lose 14 straight, and the competition is really hard to come back from, let alone in a relegation competition where you know what that means to the supporters and the pressure the players will be under. Every loss is just compounded. To get yourself out of it is even tougher.
“But they had a lot of players missing, they made some changes, got some players in who have given them some energy to the place and now they are the team that are on the up as opposed to Cas who are probably hanging on a bit at the moment. There’s a different dynamic there. It’s impressive what they’ve been able to do to get to this point. But now it’s about finishing the job.”
Castleford have lost five in a row, the last of which - a 28-0 home hammering by Huddersfield - resulted in coach Andy Last being fired, their second sacking this campaign after Lee Radford. New boss Danny Ward, the ex-London chief and Great Britain assistant who played second-row that fateful night for Castleford in 2006, takes charge for the first time tomorrow with Tigers desperately hoping he can provide their own “Kear Effect.” Demetriou, who was also in the Wakefield side that consigned Castleford to relegation in 2004, added; “Yes. For sure. They are trying to get a reaction from their players. You generally get that when a new coach comes in. But it’s not going to matter over this 80 minutes.
“It’s about who plays the best footy in that 80 minutes: all the emotion, all the talk and all the hype makes no difference once you get out on the field. It’s about who’s going to hold their nerve in the big moments and who’s team of 17 players will turn up and perform their best on the night. That has to be the focus and it’s hard to do. But you’ve such hype and build-up into what is such a big game.
“And it is a big game as you are not going to get the opportunity to take points off each other again. We stayed up last time because we were able to take four points off Cas in that last six games. That was huge. Wakey need to make the most of that on Friday. Both teams will be looking for those two points as everything is in your control after that. Once you lose those points, it’s not.”
And putting his head on the line, Demetriou - who started cutting his coaching teeth with Keighley after leaving Trinity in 2010 - does believe his former club can survive again. He said: “Wakey have been talked about as going down ever since they came into Super League. In different eras they’ve managed to fight their way out of it several times and I don’t see this being any different. The club has some momentum now and is competing a lot harder than it was earlier in the year. They're in a much better place than six weeks ago so I’m confident they will stay up.”
Wakefield's Jason Demetriou gets to grip with Castleford's Luke Dyer in the Battle of Belle Vue (Getty Images)Asked what Trinity, where he spent seven years, means to him, he said: “Anybody who plays for the club is touched by it and it stays with you when you finish playing as well. You can see that with the way David Fifita has come back and the impact he’s made because of the impact the club made on him. The members, supporters, players, staff, everybody makes it a pretty special place to play and I’m sure the players, if they can dig themselves out of this, will join that special club as well. I just wish them all the best. Wakefield Trinity’s made a huge impact on my life, not only when I was there but beyond that as well, and I’d love to see them stay in Super League.”
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
