Of the current squad, only Jamie Rooney and Jason Demetriou have been at Wildcats longer than MacGillivray, who has confirmed he is to retire from club rugby after this evening's season finale.

Coach John Kear has made the 31-year-old Scottish international his captain for the evening and the former South Sydney pack man, who joined Wildcats towards the end of the 2004 Super League season, admitted: "I'm not sure how I'll feel.

"I will just take it as it comes and try and enjoy it. It will be a big crowd and I have always enjoyed playing in front of big crowds and at Wakefield.

"It is going to be a tough game and it is a good way to end it."

Wildcats suffered a heavy defeat at Leeds in the final game of last season and MacGillivray added: "Last year we came off a bad loss and it took some rebuilding over the off-season.

"It would be good to finish on a high. It has been an indifferent year, but we've turned out some quality games and it would be good to go out with at least a good performance."

MacGillivray is returning to his native Australia and plans to apply for a job as a rugby league development officer, in his home patch of Darwin, in the Northern Territories.

"I just think it's time to take my family back home," he said. "Also, training is getting a bit harder every year."

Reflecting on his time at Wakefield, MacGillivray feels the club is in better shape now than when he arrived four years ago.

That was the season Wakefield reached the play-offs for the first – and so far only – time.

Two years later, Wakefield found themselves locked in a struggle against the drop, which ended with their epic final round winner-takes-all clash with Castleford Tigers.

"The battle against relegation was a bit of a low," he admitted. "Winning it was quite good, but getting ourselves into that position wasn't."

MacGillivray feels Wildcats have a bright future, but he fears for the club if plans for a new ground don't come off.

He said: "Since John (coach John Kear) and Beans (assistant-boss Paul Broadbent) have come in, they've worked extremely hard to get the club back on track.

"The club's striving towards something for the future, there's some really good kids coming through and they've got some old heads to rub their experience off on them.

"The club's coming along in leaps and bounds, they are improving the ground facilities and they're trying to get a new ground.

"If they get the ground sorted out, there's no doubt the future's bright.