As the Betfred Championship kick-starts on Friday night with a blockbuster clash between Wakefield Trinity and Bradford Bulls, we caught up with Wakefield’s Jay Pitts.
Pitts is a player who wears his heart on his sleeve out on the rugby league field and will be ready to right the wrongs of last year when he was part of a relegated Wakefield Trinity side – ending their 24-year stay in Super League.
2024 will see Pitts enter his seventh season as a Wakefield Trinity player, having played for the side in two separate spells, where he has made over 100 club appearances. He spent time with Wakefield between 2008 and 2009, before going on to have career spells with Leeds Rhinos - contributing to the 2011 season in which the Rhinos went on to win the Grand Final - as well as Hull FC and Bradford Bulls, before captaining London Broncos for two seasons until the end of 2019.
Following this, Pitts made the decision to return to Wakefield for the 2020 campaign, a decade after leaving the first time around – and is now back where it all began for him and his rugby league. He has remained loyal to his hometown club ever since and shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.
And despite suffering the heartbreak of relegation and a rollercoaster of emotions last year, Wakefield was a place that Pitts was determined to stay, as they embark on their new era and adjust to life in the second tier.
“Whenever things like relegation happen, you always take it a bit personally,” the committed 34-year-old said, as he gave an honest review. “I took it personally – I wasn’t good enough last year along with the squad and everything that happened at the club.
“At the time (last year), we were unsure how things were going to turn out, but one thing I was sure about was that I wanted to stay at Wakefield.
“I love the club, I love the city, I love everything about the place, and I was always going to stay regardless.
“We wanted to stay in Super League more than anything, but it just wasn’t to be. But I’m much more energetic this time around and determined to bounce back and get the club back to where it should be.”
As widely documented, it is unusual for a relegated club to have such a hype and buzz around the place, and Pitts is a man who unfortunately knows all about the devastation and implications of relegation, having also experienced this with Bradford and London:
“It’s devastating at the time, as nobody ever wants to get relegated, and we (Wakefield) worked so hard towards the back end of the year.
“But maybe it was our time – we didn’t deliver enough last year, and we found ourselves where we were.
“It is a strange feeling though to be fair, as the clubs I’ve been at before – Bradford and London – they’ve had issues when they’ve sadly gone down.
“But here has been a complete polar opposite. Matt Ellis has come in, grabbed hold of the club, and put a really positive spin on things. It’s a totally different feeling to what I’ve been involved in with relegation before.
“This year there is some real optimism and we’re really excited about getting going and getting the club back to where it should be.
“It’s been really positive so far – Daryl and the team are really good, and they’ve brought us all together.
“It’s an exciting time to be at Wakefield – to be a player here is really good and we’ve been learning constantly since the takeover.
“We went through a lot of issues in the last year or so and 2024 feels like a fresh start for us. Matt Ellis has done an amazing job with everything – the club, the coaching staff, the new stand and it’s really nice because there’s lots of positivity over the place.
“But we have to make sure we deliver.”
And deliver they have, as Trinity have already shown extremely promising signs in 2024 and find themselves just 80 minutes from their first Wembley appearance in 45 years - following a successful 1895 Cup campaign thus far.
But Daryl Powell’s men were put to the test last Sunday when they were narrowly beaten by local rivals Featherstone Rovers, in the Fifth Round of the Challenge Cup.
This meant a disappointing early exit for Wakefield, but Pitts acknowledges the toughness of the Championship, which looks to be at its most competitive yet, and insists his side must remain grounded if they are to enjoy any form of success this year:
“I’ve played in the Championship before and it’s a very, very tough league,” Pitts explained. “There are some tough places you’ve got to go and some great players in this league. We have to make sure we’re on it every single time.
“With the hype and buzz we’ve got going on at the minute, others are going to want to come and knock us off our perch, so we’ve got to make sure we’re consistent and delivering week in week out and not looking any further than the next game.
“All of the hype can happen around us, but within the squad we’ll be looking to be consistent, work really hard and make sure that we are ready to go each week.
“We won’t let complacency slip in, which we’ve spoken about.”
Looking ahead to their Round 1 clash with the Bulls on Friday – which was recently announced as a sold out event – the former Bradford man is relishing to the opportunity to face his old club, but recognises that Wakefield cannot afford to underestimate Eamon O'Carroll's men, who will also be hoping for a strong start to their campaign.
As the two sides meet for the first time in a league match since the famous 2015 Million Pound Game, Pitts welcomes the return of this highly-anticipated derby fixture as their focus now turns to the league:
“We all know the rivalry between Wakefield and Bradford and if some players don’t, I’m sure they’ll soon find out!
“It’s a very juicy game to kick-start the league and there will be a lot of people here. Bradford always bring a good following and people will have also seen how well we’ve done with pushing our season ticket sales for this year.
“The atmosphere is going to electric, and we can’t wait to get going. Belle Vue should be bouncing.”
This Round 1 fixture will be one of at least three meetings between Wakefield and Bradford this season, as their respective 1895 Cup successes also line up a mouth-watering semi-final tie at Odsal in early May.
And with a date at Wembley Finals Day possibly on the horizon, Pitts knows of its importance and what this would mean to the Trinity club:
“It’s massive. We’re like everybody else where we want to the lift the trophy and we want to go to Wembley.
“The club deserves to get back to Wembley – it’s got some rich history there. We still have fans who come down who have been around in those games and years of success. To take them back would be amazing.
“As a player as well, there’s not many opportunities you get to play at Wembley, it would be amazing, and we’ll be working hard to make sure we get there too.
“And I’ll play as long as I can and help the club reach its heights.”
The full fixture list for the Betfred Championship and Betfred League One can be found here.
Full Betfred Championship and Betfred League One previews to follow.
