Jon Wilkin says this Super League squad needs to be “ripped to bits” if club wants to compete

Much of the talk in the build-up to Castleford’s Super League clash at Huddersfield was unsurprisingly around who will become the next head coach at The Jungle.

It comes after Lee Radford departed the Tigers earlier this week after revealing he and the clubs were ‘going in different directions’.

The announcement came as a surprise to many, given we are just three rounds into the season. In those first three rounds, Castleford have suffered three defeats losing to Hull FC, St Helens and Wigan.

Speaking ahead of Friday night’s game at the John Smith’s Stadium, Sky Sports pundit and former St Helens player Jon Wilkin spoke about who he thinks the Tigers should consider to take the job.

“There’s a lot of names in the hunt isn’t there? A lot of names that we all understand as well, Justin Morgan and Andrew Henderson,” said Wilkin.

He continued: “I think there’s interesting names at the bottom of the list. There’s Mark Brentnall, for people who don’t know his dad played for Australia. He’s been the guy who’s been the architect for Melbourne’s attack in the NRL and he’s getting lauded for their huge improvements.

“Also John Strange, from the NRLW as the Sydney Roosters women’s coach. There’s two interesting names there. I think they’re the interesting names on the list for people at home who don’t know them.”

Whoever takes over at the Jungle, Wilkin believes they need to “rip” the squad apart.

He said: “Whoever comes in has to rip this squad to bits. There are 13 over 30s, 31 average age, oldest squad in Super League by a mile whoever gets the job has a rebuild to do.

“We use that word flippantly but they need a rebuild.”