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Wakefield completed their stunning transformation from top-flight also-rans to Super League champions as they pummelled Warrington 23-10 to win their first Grand Final at a sold-out Old Trafford.
Trinity continued where they left off in last week’s scintillating semi-final win at Wigan by roaring into a 19-0 half-time lead and survived Corey Hall’s yellow card soon after the restart to coast home with something to spare.
Their victory marks a first Grand Final triumph for veteran coach Daryl Powell, who assumed control of the ailing club in 2023 shortly after their relegation to the relative wilderness of the Betfred Championship.
Early tries from Cam Scott, Isaiah Vagana and Jazz Tevaga, bolstered by three Max Jowitt conversions and a Jack Sinfield drop goal, shunted power-packed Trinity to the brink of the victory by the half-time hooter.
Arron Lindop’s effort shortly after Hall saw yellow for a forearm smash gave Warrington a glimmer of hope, but when Tom Johnstone stepped inside Lindop to snatch Wakefield’s fourth on the hour mark, Trinity’s 58-year wait to win a league title was effectively over.
Wakefield’s jubilant hordes in the Stretford End counted down the final seconds to their triumph and, while Powell was embraced by the club’s millionaire owner Matt Ellis, the main architect of one of the sport’s great revivals, Warrington were left to rue a fifth Grand Final defeat.
It felt harsh on the likes of Wire captain George Williams, who dreamed of ending his Warrington career with an elusive title before he heads off for a second crack at the NRL with Dolphins next year.
But there were plenty of poignant send-offs on the Wakefield side, with home-grown star Jowitt playing his last match before joining Super League rivals York, while Jay Pitts, who first joined Trinity in 2008 when such occasions were barely even a pipe dream, heads into retirement on the ultimate high.
Just like Wigan at the Brick Community Stadium one week earlier, Warrington were simply out-muscled by a peerless pack in which the likes of captain Mike McMeeken and hooker Tyson Smoothy were simply outstanding.
By the time Lachlan’s Walmsley’s audacious underarm pass sent Scott over for the opener after 11 minutes, Trinity had already had an effort disallowed when Johnstone strayed marginally into touch, and the Wakefield assault proved relentless.
Smoothy’s perfectly judged 40/20 kick piled on the pressure and Johnstone turned provider to grasp a Jake Trueman’s kick and feed Vagana to trot over unchallenged.
Wakefield were in dreamland and it got better before the break as Wakefield pressed on the back of a penalty on the Warrington 20 and Tevaga barged over from dummy-half. Sinfield, watched by his father Sir Kevin, who finished his final ultra-marathon challenge on the pitch before kick-off, put the seal on a stunning first period.
Warrington were gifted an unexpected lifeline moments into the second half when Hall was sin-binned for a forearm smash on Lindop, who picked himself up to go over in the corner for Wire’s opening try.
Trinity endured some shaky moments, Kelepi Tanginoa’s forward pass denying Matty Ashton the chance to pile on more pressure, and when Jowitt, who moments earlier appeared to have a dislocated finger wrenched back into place by a Trinity physio, fed Johnstone for their fourth, it was all but over.
Lindop crossed for his second with eight minutes left on the clock, but it was too much to ask for Wire and their dejected head coach Sam Burgess, with their own wait for a top-flight title now stretching deeper into an eighth decade.