The club can confirm that before we kick off our game against Castleford Tigers on Friday 18th August, we will be holding a minutes applause to remember former Trinity coach, Shane McNally.

Shane was a Queenslander and born in May 1954 playing as a prop forward and hooker at Northern Suburbs (now the Norths Devils), Western Suburbs (now Wests Panthers) and Eastern Suburbs Tigers (now Brisbane Tigers) between 1974 and 1984, winning various Grand Finals. McNally arrived in the UK and became assistant coach at Wakefield Trinity with Peter Roe as First Team Coach, taking over in temporary charge when Roe moved on in July 2002. After a 31-24 win in London, after trailing at half time, he was appointed coach and Adrian Vowles was brought in as player-coach. After a last day, 50-10 home win over Warrington, Trinity survived in Super League. Trinity finished in eleventh in 2003 with Ben Jeffries, Gareth Ellis, Colum Halpenny, Michael Korkidas and Jamie Rooney joining the team but Vowles moved on, leaving McNally in sole command in 2004. It was a season still talked about to this day, finishing sixth in Super League and winning an epic play-off game at Hull, before an 18-14 loss at Wigan leading 14-0. He won the ‘Coach of the Year’ in 2004. The last of his 92 games was a 40-22 loss at Huddersfield on 19th June 2005. He won 34 out of those 92 games, winning 25 of 55 whilst in sole command.

We will always remember Shane McNally for his time and efforts for Trinity, particularly in that 2004 season and all our thoughts are with Maxine, his wife and children.