Confirmed: Super League club appealing IMG grade

The RFL have confirmed that Castleford Tigers will be appealing their IMG Grading after they were confirmed today with Leeds Rhinos, Wigan Warriors, Warrington Wolves, Hull KR, Hull FC, St Helens and Catalans Dragons the only teams to receive Grade As.

The Tigers are one of 17 clubs who have been given a Grade B ahead of the 2024 season but do not rank inside the vitally important top 12 positions.

They sit 13th behind Championship clubs Toulouse Olympique in 10th and rivals Wakefield Trinity who were relegated at Castleford’s expense last season who are 11th.

12th is taken by Leigh Leopards with Castleford in 13th despite finishing above Wakefield in all three of the recent campaigns that are considered and finishing above Leigh in two out of three of them.

But Cas feel they could be deserving of a further half a point due to an error made and it has been confirmed that they will appeal.

RFL CEO Tony Sutton said:

“I think we need to draw a line under this part of the process and move forward for clubs to be able to assess where they can grow and get more points, and of course that being reflective of a higher and probably better level of operations.

“The points under the scoring criteria reflect positive actions in communities and for clubs and in finance etc. So I think that’s what everybody will be trying to focus on.

“We won’t be looking to drag it out at all and I would presume that at some point over the next 12 hours I will have that submission from Castleford in full and we’ll assess that carefully and considerately and we’ll do just as you would expect.”

Matt Dwyer of IMG meanwhile explained that this is why they’re having a trial run:

“This is one of the reasons why we have this illustrative year. This is a new process so we’re doing something different here and there’s going to be a few things that need to be ironed out, and here’s an example of one.

“But that’s one of the reasons why we have this year, which is effectively a trial run, so people can see how it works and have those indications.”