Castleford star commits future amidst rumours of a move away

Castleford Tigers have announced that Nathan Massey has agreed a new two-year contract extension.

The forward joined the club when he was 15 years of age and, during his time in the Academy, was awarded with the Tigers Academy Player of the Year in 2007 before going on to make his professional debut in the same year. He appeared in his 250^th match for the club away at Salford just a couple of weeks ago.

Speaking to castlefordtigers.com, Massey stated just how pleased he is to be staying at the club he has represented since he was a teenager.

“I am obviously over the moon because I’ve made it no secret that I wanted to stay here. The next two years is going to be big for me and it will take me to near the end of my career. I’ve said that if it was possible to finish my career here I would, and this contract might take me to that.

“I am proud to play for this club and I feel privileged to pull the shirt on every week and hopefully the next two years are going to be another good few years for the club.”

Massey explained that it has been a pleasing first couple of months for himself and the team, however, he believes there is still much more to come.

“We’ve been winning which is the main thing, but I think we are playing at 60 percent because there is a big improvement in us. We have got another couple of boys coming back in the next few weeks which will strengthen the team in terms of competition for places.

“We’ve got plenty of work to do, but it’s been a strong start to the season and hopefully we can keep building.

“There is plenty of motivation to finish this season on a high with Powelly (Daryl Powell) leaving after what he has done for the club. It’s a bit of an end of an era for us this year so there is plenty of motivation in there to win some silverware.”

Looking to next season and beyond, Massey’s extension means he will be working under new head coach Lee Radford in 2022, and he is looking forward to the two-time Challenge Cup winning coach’s vision for the Tigers.

“I’ve had a chat with Radders (Lee Radford) just to chat about the club and things like that. It’s exciting. Not so much has to change but some fresh ideas and a different sort of game plan that he will probably bring is exciting.”

Castleford’s head coach from 2022 Lee Radford spoke highly of Nathan Massey and shared his excitement about confirming he will remain at Tigers in 2022 and 2023.

“He optimises what Castleford is all about really. He is an honest, hardworking and does things that the untrained eye doesn’t see.

“He’s really tidy in and around the ruck and it’s because of players like him that Castleford have been as successful as they have been in seasons gone by. I’m really looking forward to working with him.”