Durable Wilkes has his eye on top eight for Trinity

Considering the Wakefield Trinity Wildcats prop is nearing double figures when it comes to the clubs he has played for, that is no mean feat.

Such numbers and regular turnover of employers often hints at a problematic employee or someone who is just not good enough.

However, the experienced Wilkes is neither. He has never been a flashy operator but is one of those hard-working and reliable sorts who gets through the dirty work in the middle with minimum fuss.

Every team needs one, if not more, and the unheralded 32-year-old can certainly look back with satisfaction on his career so far.

“I’ve played for nine clubs professionally and just tried to better myself every time I’ve made any move,” Wilkes told the Yorkshire Post ahead of tonight’s game with Leeds Rhinos.

“Each move has benefited my career and there’s only been once that I’ve been told I was surplus to requirements and that was by Tony Smith over at Huddersfield back in 2001.”

It is only a little later in the interview when prompted about his six-game spell at Wigan in 2006 that he adds a correction.

“I’ve contradicted myself now,” he laughs. “You’re right. I was told twice I was surplus to requirements.

“Ian Millward signed me at Wigan from Whitehaven, but then Brian Noble came in soon after. He basically said my face didn’t fit and I went out on loan to Widnes. He actually told me that the following year he’d have me coaching kids nine ’til five through the day and then training with the Under-20s on a night so I knew my time was up.

“It was very disappointing. Being from South Cumbria, Wigan was the nearest professional club and I’d grown up supporting them.

“It was a dream come true to sign there, but then it all just went up in a puff of smoke.

“It was one of those things but I’ve no hard feelings to Noble.

“They had to find space on the salary cap to sign Stuart Fielden.

“I’ve just tried to give my best wherever I’ve been and it was no different at Wigan. I’ve always done that – tried my hardest – and always will as long as I’m a professional.”

Indeed, and it is no disgrace for a player to be released, no less one who would command a world record transfer fee of £450,000 as Great Britain prop Fielden did on arriving from Bradford Bulls.

It did mean Wilkes fell out of Super League again playing at Widnes for a couple of years, but he had bounced back from such setbacks twice before.

After being released by Smith, he dropped into the Championship and built himself up again, first with Keighley Cougars and then – after leaving Leigh – Whitehaven.

He did so again and was offered another chance of top-flight football at Wakefield in 2008 by John Kear, the man who first spotted his potential at Cumbrian amateurs Ulverston.

“John signed me at Sheffield Eagles,” he recalled, about a time when the South Yorkshire club was enjoying its zenith.

“I actually moved at the end of the amateur season which was around May 1998.

“They’d won the cup on May 2 so I just missed out on all that, but it was a childhood dream to become a professional rugby league player.”

Wilkes made one substitute appearance later that year and a handful more under the shambolic merger with Huddersfield up until 2001, but it was four more years before he returned to the elite with Leigh.

However, it was his first spell with Wakefield where he firmly established himself, performing regularly in 2008 and 2009 before a similarly productive two-year stint with Harlequins.

“I don’t think things have quite panned out how I expected,” he admitted. “It’s been challenging and there have been ups and downs. But, hopefully, it can continue for a few more years yet on a high. I’m in my fourth year at Wakefield now over two spells.

“They say props get to their best in their 30s. I don’t know about me but I’m just going about my business and enjoying it.”

The business this evening entails tackling the likes of esteemed international props Jamie Peacock, Kylie Leuluai and Ryan Bailey as Wakefield, minus their own totemic prop Andy Raleigh, seek to end a run of four games without a win.

“They’ve been the dominant force for the last five years and you’ve always got to challenge yourself against so-called ‘big names’,” said Wilkes, whose injury-hit Wildcats side lost 52-18 at St Helens last Friday.

“We got a good result here last year winning against the Rhinos and hopefully we can go out and do the same this time.”

Wilkes was in the Wakefield side that finished fifth in 2009 and helped Richard Agar’s side reach the play-offs again last season before bowing out at Headingley.

A win tonight would lift them back into the top eight and he is confident of repeating the feat while there is another target at the end of the season.

Wilkes memorably scored the winning try as Scotland earned their first World Cup win against Fiji in Australia in 2008.

“I never got a look in last year and I don’t know why that was but if he (Steve McCormack) changes his mind I’m ready for another crack,” he said.

Ready and always willing.