Craig Lingard’s Castleford Tigers tenure, the positives and where it went wrong

Craig Lingard, it has been announced, has parted ways with Castleford Tigers after just the first year of his contract.

The Tigers didn’t exactly have the best time on the field across the campaign, but it was always billed as a year of ‘building’ after finishing dangerously close to relegation last year, narrowly avoiding it at the expense of rivals Wakefield Trinity.

In wake of this news, here’s the good and bad of his time at the club.

The good of Castleford Tigers under Craig Lingard

Castleford have been exciting at times. Against Hull KR and Wigan (the top two), there could easily have been victories.

The fans stayed on side despite a number of losses, and were rewarded with some good victories mid-season against St Helens and Catalans Dragons.

Young players were brought to the fore, with Fletcher Rooney, Jenson Windley and Cain Robb particular highlights of the campaign – while Liam Horne was also a success story, given his first taste of first-grade rugby league in 2024.

Other players given opportunities included Tex Hoy, ousted by Hull FC, and Alex Mellor, who after a disappointing 2023 came back with form good enough to win him the Castleford Player of the Year award.

Lingard had faith in players in a way that previous Castleford coaches, including Daryl Powell, never really had. Jake Trueman was probably the last man to get a breakthrough properly with the club prior to Lingard’s appointment, and Windley and co. could be an exciting and cheap way of moving forward in a tough financial spot for the sport as a whole, and this is probably the main positive that people will look back on throughout the season.

The bad of the Tigers under Craig Lingard

The side clearly didn’t have the quality required to win games and heavy losses against the likes of Huddersfield Giants towards the end of the year showed there’s a long way to go.

Daejarn Asi and Judah Rimbu, young players heavily linked with a move to Wheldon Road from Down Under, need someone to foster some confidence in 2025 if they do indeed sign, and Lingard could have been that.

However, there’s an argument to suggest he might have struggled to take the side to the next level, fighting for play-offs and titles.

His skillset has never really been in beating the top sides and he lacks experience of coaching in the upper echelons of Super League. That might be one of the reasons why new chairman Martin Jepson has made the decision to part ways – looking for a change of approach to one where the results turn from losses to wins.

However, it feels that it maybe comes a year too early for that change of approach.

Maybe, with new ownership (Jepson has taken 96% ownership this month), the club will somehow be able to attract a calibre of coach and players that justify it.