Halifax Panthers have announced a new Dual Registration partnership with Super League side Castleford Tigers for the 2023 season. Panthers have been linked with Huddersfield Giants previously but will now build new ties with Lee Radford’s men from Wheldon Road.
The partnership will see the Panthers able to utilise members of the Tigers squad in our matchday line ups and sees a return of the good working relationship between the two clubs that saw Fax and Cas as partners back in 2019.
Panthers Head Coach Simon Grix commented: “Firstly, we have no issue with the Giants. They have been helpful over the last couple of years, but they have decided against DR this year. Dual Registration is always a contentious issue for fans of the junior partner. We have had a few different partners over the years, which have worked to varied degrees of success.”
“We feel that with a small squad, it is wise to have that insurance there and thank both Lee Radford and Danny Wilson for their assistance in providing that. There are no guarantees with player availability as we are well aware what happens above us dictates, but we feel it is better to have it than not.”
Fax Director of Rugby Richard Durgan continued: “We’d like to thank Huddersfield for the last couple of years but we just thought it was a more natural fit with Castleford. We seem to have a similar feeling and similar values around dual registration. There’s a few natural connections there with Scott Murrell (Castleford Reserves Coach) on the staff there. We look forward to working with them.”
“We’ve had some very productive meetings already in the short term so hopefully exciting for the season to come and hopefully it can be of use to us. Dual registration for Championship clubs is obviously more of an insurance policy as we’d like to pull in some quality as and when we need it. We felt that Castleford bought into the idea of giving us some quality players to compliment our squad and we look forward to a successful partnership moving forward.”
Castleford Tigers’ Head of Rugby & Development, Danny Wilson added: “It’s a really exciting time for us at the club with some of the partners we’ve got. It’s an agreement that works for us two-fold as we’ve been very focussed on building our player pathway from the bottom up so it’s great to have the partnership with Midlands and now the Panthers. Also, with the Reserves it allows players coming into our pathway with that bandwidth of playing opportunities.
“We’ve got a healthy and big squad with some great Super League players but unfortunately at this time of year, some of them won’t make it into Lee’s squad so partnering with Halifax allows those top-end players the opportunity to gain valuable minutes at a top club like Halifax.”
“It gives players who have just graduated our Academy, the challenge of Reserve grade, in League 1 with Midlands, or in the Championship with Halifax. Our pathway from top to bottom now is really comprehensive.”
