Wakefield Trinity boss Mark Applegarth launches impassioned defence of recent business

The talented centre left Trinity for Hull KR this week in a swap deal that allowed Applegarth to bring in Will Dagger to fill a problem full-back position.

The move has been labelled as short-sighted by a section of Wakefield supporters but Applegarth stressed that unless results improve, there may be no tomorrow for the club in Super League.

"When you're looking at it purely from a business point of view where there isn't any more money to come in and you have to balance your squad, you've got to make these decisions with the best interests of the club at heart," he said.

"If we don't pick up results, Corey would be going at the end of the year anyway if worst came to worst because he sees his future in Super League.

"Our immediate objective is ensuring survival in Super League. Once we do that, we can start putting foundations down so we don't find ourselves in this situation again and we can get a bit more balance to the squad to get out of the cycle where we're fighting down the bottom of the table."

Injury-ravaged Wakefield have made four additions in recent weeks as they aim to belatedly get off the mark after a nightmare start to the season, with loanees Sam Hewitt, Tom Forber and Innes Senior joining permanent signing Dagger at Belle Vue.

Applegarth believes the recent activity shows how serious the club are about retaining their Super League status.

"I don't like having a victim mentality and think it's weak – but the facts are we need to get some bodies in," said Applegarth, who confirmed Hewitt – who is banned this week – has been allowed to stay on indefinitely by Huddersfield Giants.

"We're being as proactive as we can. When you look out there, who do you go for? Let's just say we have a magic pot with £100,000 in it, you can't just say ‘we’ll get these players’ because they're contracted to other clubs.

"Other clubs are a business themselves and will do what's right for their business. If they don't feel they can offset that loss, they won't make their asset available.

"One hundred per cent I get the fans' frustration – and even share it at times – but objectively they can rest assured we're doing what we feel is right for the short and long-term health of the club."

Trinity chief executive Michael Carter has indicated that more swap deals could be in the offing.

Applegarth would be open to letting more players go if it meant strengthening the squad across the board, although at present Wakefield are only speaking to clubs about potential loan deals.

"One hundred per cent," he said.

"We are a club that always spend within our means. We haven't got owners that are willing to offset millions in personal loss and rightly so.

"We're trying to get a sustainable club. You've got budgets to work to. We're not at cap and had a budget that we all knew about coming into this year.

"If there's no more money, the only other solution to get players in is to see what business is out there.

"The team is bigger than any individual, so you always do what's right for the team and the club.

"That's not me saying I want to get rid of players because I don't; what I'm saying is if ridiculous offers were made to Michael, you'd be a fool not to listen."

Wakefield will continue their search for a first win of the Super League season when they travel to four-time defending champions St Helens on Friday night before switching their attention to big games against Castleford Tigers and Leigh Leopards.

"There's no hiding away from the fact there's a couple of big games coming around the corner but we're playing the world champions this week," added Applegarth, who is set to have the likes of Liam Hood, Renouf Atoni and Kevin Proctor available next week.

"We haven't got the luxury of going into a game thinking that we'll have one eye on the Castleford game. If you do that, you're going to get burned badly because you're playing against the best team in the world.

"We'll get Friday out of the way first. Cas is always a spicy game with it being a local derby but it adds a bit more bite to it with the situation we're both in."