Tom Johnstone praises culture and mentality change under Willie Poaching

Wakefield Trinity star Tom Johnstone was full of praise for Head Coach Willie Poaching after he has brought in a new mentality at the Belle Vue.

Poaching was placed in interim charge midway through the 2021 season after the departure of Chris Chester and impressed so much that he earned himself the job on a permanent basis.

Many had the concern that things would not really change after giving the job to someone who had worked under Chester, but that thought has been wiped out by Johnstone as he spoke to the media ahead of Wakefield’s first game of the 2022 season.

The 26-year-old described the new mentality as going from a ‘struggling team to a team who want to work hard for each other’.

“I think we’ve been lacking that mentality the last few years, especially the enjoyment.

“I know for me, I probably played a bit selfish a few times saying, ‘if I’ve played well, I’m happy’ but now it’s all about doing a job for the people around you.”

Since Poaching took over at Wakefield, the form vastly improved and Trinity finished the season in strong form looking ahead to 2022 with four wins out of their last five games of the normal Super League season.

“I really don’t see why we can’t start this season like we finished the last one.

“We’ve tried changing the whole club. Poaching’s really gone to town with it by making us research past players and learn about the club and what it means to the fans.

“He’s opened our eyes to the fact that we’re not just playing for ourselves, we’re playing for the community around us, the past players and the players we’re with now. It’s just much more of a collective vibe and I think it’s really working.

“We want to make it a family club again. In the past few years it was there but I think over the past few years it’s been lost a little bit.

“Things had become segregated, we had different groups within the team and just a distance between the culture of the club and what we we’re driving.”

The winger believes that the mentality and culture that Willie Poaching is building at the club will mean that the fans will be closely connected to the team in the months ahead.

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