Castleford Tigers are one of the teams that seem to have gone under the radar during the hype and build-up towards the season, in part due to three seasons placing outside the playoffs.
The upcoming campaign is a new chance though for Castleford to make that top six and with plenty of new signings, including a fully revamped half pairing, they’re confident in that goal.
Their hooker Paul McShane expressed what their goals were for the season that they’ll kick off a week on Sunday.
“I think expectations if you have any ambition is play-offs and with the group that we’ve got I think we can go a little bit better.
“I’m not saying we’re targeting any position but playoffs is the priority and I believe that with this group we can compete with anybody on our day.”
Part of the reasons that the Tigers struggled so much last season was due to disruption among the squad due to injuries, McShane himself often having to adopt a play-making role, something that former Castleford player Jacques O’Neill commented on yesterday.
Lee Radford’s men have since been strengthened by former Wakefield captain Jacob Miller and former England international Gareth Widdop, something that should allow McShane to assume his number nine role once again.
“There was a fair bit of frustration last year with a people having to move, that wasn’t just me though. I think a lot of people played out of position, so to do what we did last season was a fair effort,” McShane explained.
“I thinking bring Milky (Jacob Miller) and Gaz (Gareth Widdop), I think that’s massive for us as a team. You’ve got two senior players there who now the game and Super League and can hopefully can kick us onto the next level.”
That next level and goal is clearly the playoffs as McShane had already stated but with such a competitive competition in prospect, nothing is guaranteed.
“I was talking to Powelly (Daryl Powell) when we came in about who we’ve got at the start and who they’ve got at the start and we were both saying, ‘you don’t know what’s going to happen’.
“You just don’t know, it’s exciting. You’ll get the best out of players as well, there’s a lot on the line. We’re not too sure what’s happening next year so every team has got to go out there and put everything in.”
