Craig Lingard spoke to the media for the first time after being confirmed as the new Sheffield Eagles boss with the ex-Cas man outlining his main transfer target, revealing the team’s short and long-term goals, and confirming the length of his contract.
After his shock sacking from Castleford Tigers, Lingard didn’t have to wait long to join a new club with Sheffield Eagles confirming him as their new head coach just six weeks after his exit from Wheldon Road.
A length of contract was not specified but Lingard has now cleared that up, explaining: “As you can see with the length of time that Mark has been here, they’re not a club that changes coach on a regular basis so as long as I’m happy and they’re happy, the contract will continue on a rolling basis.”
During his time in Super League, Craig Lingard led the Tigers to seven wins which marked an improvement on 2023 but not enough for him to retain his job. Outlining what tasks he faces as he heads back to the Championship, Lingard noted how and why Sheffield is such a different proposition.
“It’s the transition here. I’m coming in off the back of a long-tenured coach at Sheffield so they’ve not had a new coach for a long time,” Lingard noted as he alluded to the long-serving Mark Aston who was suspended by the RFL after breaching rules regarding player safety.
Sheffield had suspended Aston initially after the RFL opened an investigation and that correlated with a huge dip in the club’s form meaning they missed the play-offs. Making that top six is a priority for the upcoming season, Lingard revealed.
Craig Lingard outlines Sheffield Eagles goals and recruitment plans
Credit: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
Asked about his goals with the club, Craig Lingard explained: “It all depends on what the club want to achieve. The club have talked about wanting to try and get back into Super League but to do that, you need to have a full-time squad. So we’ve got some short-term aims but we’re also looking at the longer-term future.
“With the squad that we’ve currently got, which I think is a great Championship squad, it’s not necessarily a squad that either could or would want to challenge in Super League so we’ve got to put that in place.
“It’s not going to be an immediate thing where we go and buy loads of full-time players. That’s something we’ve got to stage and do over a period that’s right for us.
“But we do have short-term goals, we want to have a good tilt at the 1895 Cup and certainly top six or potentially top four this year, but there is an eye on the long-term future as well.”
That great Championship squad that Craig Lingard references has been bolstered by a number of Super League players including Corey Johnson and Morgan Smith, however, there are two key areas that the club need to strengthen the ex-Cas boss claimed.
“It’s a bit too early (to say) but I think there are a couple of areas where we need to strengthen a little bit. We’ve only got two half-backs at the club at the minute and one is currently injured. We’ve only got one full-back at the club.
“You need that strength and depth and competition for places. We’d like to bring somebody in who can play half-back or play full-back, or both.
“There are a couple of other positions as well where there’s not as many people as we need but we’re overloading other positions as well.”
Given the stage of the 0ff-season, Lingard explained that recruitment could be difficult now but he’s outlined the window of opportunity that could present itself early in 2025 whilst also confirming that dual registration is not the answer.
“We’re always looking as a coaching staff at how we can improve the team. It will be a work in progress but at this stage of the season, there are limited players around there so it might be that it gets to the point where four or five weeks into the season and the Super League pecking orders become clear. You generally see a little bit of movement around that stage of the season.
“It (dual registration) is not top of my priorities. We’ve got 25 or 26 players so we’re not desperately short on numbers. If it’s something a Super League club wants to do then I’d certainly have that conversation but I’m not going out and ringing people and asking for connections.”
