in May 1994. He then went to Halifax as Director of Football in January 1995. 1996–1997: Summer era In 1996, the first tier of British rugby league clubs played the inaugural Super League season and changed from a winter to a summer season. When the Rupert Murdoch-funded Super League competition has been proposed, part of the deal was that some traditional clubs would merge. Wakefield were down to merge with Castleford and Featherstone Rovers to form a new club, Calder, which would compete in the newly formed Super League. Although Wakefield voted to merge, the other clubs refused to do so; Wakefield finished below the cut-off point of 10th in the existing top flight and were excluded from the new Super League. As the sport in Britain entered a new era, it would be three years before Wakefield rose again to the top level of the game. 1998–2005: Entry to Super League Under coach Andy Kelly, Wakefield earned their place in the top flight on the back of their controversial victory over Featherstone Rovers in the inaugural Division One Grand Final in 1998. Wakefield adopted the "Wildcats" nickname in 1998: the year they entered Super League, having won promotion from the first division. Wakefield put together a startling series of results early in the 1999 season, beating some of the most fancied sides and ensuring early in the campaign that they would be safe. The club invested heavily in newcomers. Wakefield also played one of their televised home games at Barnsley F.C’s Oakwell stadium against St. Helen’s John Harbin was the coach of Wakefield between October 2000 and October 2001, Wakefield's final game of the 2001 season was a relegation battle with Salford with Wakefield condemning Huddersfield to relegation. He decided to leave the club at the end of 2001. Peter Roe was appointed Head Coach in October 2001. After years of struggling to keep up with the Super League pace which saw Trinity finish next to bottom on most of their attempts they finally got around to making headway up the league. Peter Roe was sacked in July 2002 and was replaced by his assistant Shane McNally. With Adrian Vowles as his co-coach the pair guided Trinity to their first-ever SL play-off position, finishing in 6th place. In 2004, after a slow start to the season Trinity finished stronger than any other team in the competition giving their fans