Leeds Rhinos legend Danny McGuire left Hull KR after a five year stint at Craven Park and will now join Castleford Tigers on a two year deal.
He concluded his Leeds career with a Grand Final win over Castleford before playing two years at Hull KR before taking on the assistant coach role.
He was even caretaker Head Coach in 2022 but left at the end of the season to be appointed assistant at the Jungle.
Craig Lingard is Head Coach.
Lingard joined the Tigers back in May as Assistant coach to Andy Last and combined his job at Wheldon Road with his role as Head Coach of the Batley Bulldogs. Since then, Craig led Batley to Wembley for the 1895 Cup final, which they sadly lost out on in the dying seconds.
However, Craig has now set his sights on his new role as a Super League Head Coach and will take the helm straight away as he prepares the squad for pre-season.
Craig spoke to ctrlfc.com and shared his honour to have earned the role that will take the club forward.
“I am massively honoured! Something I’ve always aspired to be is a Head Coach in Super League and I’ve got that opportunity now.
“It has come a little bit sooner than I was expecting but it’s something I’m going to grab with both hands and hopefully be a success. I’m coming in with my eyes fully wide open, it’s not a new venue for me and I’ve got a good idea about the workings of the club and with a lot of change in personnel with people leaving and people coming in the bulk of the squad that are staying I’ve got experience of working with those guys.”
“I can work a bit more closely with them next year and put my stamp on how I want us to play and the values we want to bring back to Castleford Tigers to make us more successful than we have been this season.”
Craig’s new Assistant will be Danny McGuire, who has won a plethora of trophies in the game as a player. His most recent employers have been Hull Kingston Rovers where he was Assistant to Willie Peters.
Now, Danny is looking ahead to a new challenge at The Jungle and he, like Craig, can’t wait to get started.
“I’m really excited about the challenge after a fair bit of speculation but for me it’s about looking forward to working with a really talented bunch of players and a club with history and everything that surrounds Castleford Tigers.”
“I can’t wait to get stuck into it. It’s really nice to meet Craig. He seems a really good fella and I’m really excited to work alongside him. I’m still fairly early on into my coaching journey with loads to learn and experience so I’m excited to be working alongside somebody who’s achieved so much in the game so I’ll be picking his brains hopefully we can gel really well and work well as a combination.”
