Paul McShane talks about his Castleford future amidst rumours of a move away

Paul McShane has been Castleford’s talisman for the past seven years, but recently rumours have circled that he is about to join Daryl Powell at Warrington.

However, the hooker quashed such rumours, stating that there have been early contract talks at Castleford.

“It’s been tossed up, and we’ve had a sit down, but nothing concrete has really been said,” McShane said.

“I’ve still got 18 months left of my deal, if nothing comes of it then it’ll be fine – I’ve still got a while left here.

“I’m settled here, the club has made me into the player I am now – it’s still only 15 minutes from where I live which makes it easier too!

“I can remember when I first joined, and you can’t really explain what it’s like being in and around the club to those outside it.”

The Tigers are in action against Salford in the Challenge Cup quarter-final this weekend and McShane is keen to get the job done and get to Wembley.

“It’s exciting; we’ve got a tough task ahead this week but we’ve got a lot of reasons why we want to get there and do a job.

“There’s probably a few players at the club that have given so much that we want to send them off in the best way possible.

“You watch the Challenge Cup and you want to get to Wembley – I’ve never been to a semi-final or final so it would be massive for me.

“It will be really tough, it doesn’t help playing each other last week but I don’t think either side will have played their full hand last week either.

“For us it’s a challenge to be ready for 80 minutes – you get one crack at it and you leave it all out there, but we need to focus on ourselves and doing our jobs right.

For McShane, the hooker has only ever worked under Daryl Powell at Castleford, but the prospect of working under a different coach with Lee Radford in 2022 is one which he says he can easily adapt to.

“Me and Radders had a brief chat, I introduced myself and stuff like that.

“It’s just a case of cracking on next year, but we just need to do what we need to this year.

“As a group of players you adapt as long as you fully buy into what Lee will bring in, we will crack on.”