Lee Radford on the problem with some Challenge Cup Finals

When you think of Lee Radford you think Challenge Cup.

The Castleford Tigers coach was the man who ended Hull FC’s Wembley hoodoo in 2016 and delivered back to back Challenge Cups.

That was likely one of the reasons he was brought to the Tigers who have contested three major finals in the last decade losing them all.

Radford was drafted in to change that.

Speaking to Serious About Rugby League, Radford had his say on the Challenge Cup and said the Tigers would go all guns blazing to win the trophy:

“Out of the two competitions it’s probably the one that’s the easier of the two to accomplish, but getting up for those games and getting up for the semis and the final is obviously a challenge because there’s some good good sides in the competition as well.

“I love it, I love the Challenge Cup and I was fortunate enough to win it on a couple of occasions as a player and I’ve done it as a coach.

“I led my lad out at Wembley as well, and you know we didn’t win that day but it was a special point in my career, so yeah the answer to that is I love the Challenge Cup and we’ll be doing absolutely everything within our power to get to Wembley this year.”

When asked if the cup still has the same magic it did in the past, before Super League, Radford had an interesting response citing one problem:

“It’s a funny one, I think if you’d have asked me ‘does it have the same magic’ in either ’16 or ’17 then I’d have said yeah.

“I think sometimes it depends on which clubs get there, some clubs take more supporters naturally than others and I don’t want to be detrimental to some teams, but when some teams get there and it doesn’t look that full I think that can have a bias on the opinion of ‘is it a success or isn’t it’.

“I think if Castleford got there and a Leeds got there it’d be a packed house and it’d be a special occasion, there’s just a couple of clubs that don’t have that unfortunately.

“Genuinely I wish they did, but they just don’t have that support base behind them and I think that can make it look a little bit disappointing when the stadiums pan around and it’s half empty.”