Max Jowitt reveals Wakefield Trinity pact as core players offer hope for future

Wakefield were rock bottom of Super League without a win to their name and seemingly destined for the Championship.

The assumption was that the new contracts had relegation clauses but Mark Applegarth recently confirmed that is not the case.

Jowitt will be at Belle Vue next season come what may in a considerable show of commitment to the relegation favourites.

"Regardless of what happens, I'll be at Wakefield for the next two years," he told The Yorkshire Post.

"Me and Mason have the same agent and had a chat with each other about what we wanted to do for the next couple of years. Wakefield are a club that are moving in the right direction with the new ownership coming in and the new stadium. It's a place I want to stick around.

"Being injured this year, I wanted to give the fans and the club something back for their loyalty to me over the past nine years or so.

"In the end, it was quite an easy decision."

Although Wakefield have won two of their last three games to give themselves hope of pulling off another great escape, their situation in Super League has not changed since Jowitt and Lino demonstrated their loyalty to the club.

Applegarth's men remain four points from safety after seeing nearest rivals Castleford Tigers claim wins over Leeds Rhinos and Warrington Wolves in June.

But should the worst happen, Trinity have a core of players committed to taking the club straight back to Super League with Jay Pitts and Liam Kay also on board for 2024.

"That's the plan going forward," added Jowitt.

"Obviously we want to try to stay in Super League this year and that's our main goal – but if that doesn't happen, we're building a really strong squad to fire ourselves straight back up.

"I was speaking to Mash (Applegarth) before I signed it and he said he wanted to get the spine nailed down for next year.

"After having a lot of chats with him, (chief executive) Michael (Carter) and Mason, we knew what we wanted to do and got the deals over the line which I'm really happy with."

Jowitt was missed during his three-month spell on the sidelines, with Wakefield's form adding to the pain of a freak ankle injury that required surgery.

Trinity's perilous situation meant the homegrown full-back had to hit the ground running on his return to the side, which is a big ask of any player.

There were signs in last week's win over Salford Red Devils in particular that Jowitt is getting back to somewhere close to his best, the 26-year-old laying on two tries and making important defensive contributions.

"Getting injured one round in is not ideal when I wanted a big year," he said.

"It was frustrating because you want to be out on that field trying to help out as much as you can.

"That's gone now and I'm looking to get some form back. Our halves took control of last week's game really well and it freed me up to roam around and do my own thing."

As well as Jowitt's return to fitness, Wakefield welcomed club icon David Fifita back to Belle Vue as one of a raft of signings.

Former England half-back Luke Gale also joined Trinity's fight for survival and left his fingerprints all over the victory against Salford.

"Dave has taken control of the middles and Galey has taken control of us backs," said Jowitt.

"Everyone knows exactly what they should be doing at what point. We're not worrying about what other people are doing and are just worrying about our own job.

"Everyone can see what Dave does on the field – he's an aggressor and never shuts up, on or off the field.

"He's a good person to have around training. Losing week in, week out is tough but he lifts the mood and makes training competitive."

Wigan Warriors are next up for Wakefield on Friday night before dates with Huddersfield Giants, Warrington and Hull FC.

A potential blockbuster against Castleford follows but Jowitt knows the importance of that game will be determined by how Trinity perform between now and then.

"We're finding some form," he said. "But we're not going to get ahead of ourselves because we've only won two games and have still got a massive job on our hands.

"We're going to keep ticking games off and hopefully get a few more wins.

"When Cas got a couple of wins, everyone wrote us off. They do that every single year anyway so there was nothing new there.

"We want to get above Cas and have one eye on it but a lot can change in six weeks so we're just taking each week as it comes."