New boss Ryan Carr has revealed why Castleford Tigers was the right job to tempt him back to England.
Carr coached Featherstone Rovers to an unlikely Championship Grand Final appearance in 2019, when he was also assistant coach at Leeds Rhinos.
He returned to Australia after one season as assistant to then Parramatta Eels coach Brad Arthur and later took a similar role at St George-Illawarra Dragons.
Carr, who was linked with a number of jobs in England before being appointed by Tigers in August, is now preparing for the start of pre-season and stressed: “I’ve always had ambitions to be a head coach.
“I’ve been an assistant in Australia for the past six years, but I love having my own team. I have a good relationship with Chezzy [sporting director Chris Chester], who I’ve known since I was last over here. We’ve stayed in touch and we share a lot of beliefs on and off the field. I think that’s important.
“I was confident in where I was coming into and where the club’s heading and the room for growth, which is really exciting.
“There’s a lot to work with here. I love a challenge and we’ve got a challenge here. We’re going to grab it with both hands and go forward.”
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Carr knows the area from his time at Rovers and reckons Castleford Tigers have a link with their fans few clubs can match.
“A huge advantage of the club is the community we are in,” he stated. “We are a rugby league community; passionate fans who care about the club deeply.
“We want to create that hostile environment for teams who come here because that’s what home grounds are for.
“Everyone values their home ground like that, but – I know from first-hand experience – on its day this rivals any team in the competition for a home ground.
“It’s our job to make the community feel excited about us and to give them the belief they can come and support us.
“We rely so heavily on the community and it’s our job to repay their faith and support with good performances and turn it into a huge advantage.”
Carr knows fans won’t accept lack of effort and he feels the same. He stressed: “There’s a few non-negotiables we’ll operate with – the level we compete at and how hard our effort is every game is something we’re going to value very highly.
“We’re going to compete really hard, our effort levels will be extremely high and we’re going to do that consistently and we’re going to demand that of ourselves.
“We’re going to make sure we focus on building something special here at this club. We want everyone involved to be excited and to go on a journey we get some really good memories out of.”
Players are in for testing this week and the first field training session of pre-season will be on Monday.
Carr confirmed everyone other than Semi Valemei, who had Fiji commitments, will be in from day one.
Brett Delaney and Scott Murrell are staying on in their assistant coach roles at Castleford Tigers and new medical and strength and conditioning staff will be announced during pre-season.
