The fascinating stats behind Lee Radford’s Castleford sacking

It’s been a rough start to the season for Castleford Tigers as they’ve lost three from three, however in shock news this morning Lee Radford has been ‘relieved of his duties’ by the club.

The Tigers have fallen to defeat in all three fixtures losing a narrow game against Hull FC in week one, then at the Jungle to St Helens in round two before Wigan Warriors put on a display against them on Friday night.

It seems that the large margin of victory for Wigan (36-0) on Friday night was the straw that broke the camel’s back as Castleford announced via their social media this morning that Radford and the club had parted ways.

A statement on their website said: “Castleford Tigers can confirm that Lee Radford has been relieved of his First Team duties by mutual agreement.

“Everyone at the Club would like to thank Lee for his time in charge of the First Team.

“The Club’s Board of Directors will now begin the search for its next permanent Head Coach and would ask everyone to get behind Andy Last and the team in the interim period.

“Assistant Coach Andy Last will take charge of the First Team for the Fords’ upcoming fixture at Huddersfield Giants on Friday night.”

Radford himself made the following statement: “With the club and myself heading in different directions, I think making this early call will be the correct one. Hopefully, it can kick start their season starting this Friday away at Huddersfield.

“I’d like to thank on record the fans, management, coaching staff, and players and wish them all the best for 2023 and beyond.”

It comes after the former Hull FC coach guided the Tigers to a seventh place finish in his first season in charge, narrowly missing out on the playoffs after a final round defeat at Leeds Rhinos.

But what are the stats behind this decision.

We have taken a look at Radford’s time at Cas and it makes for interesting ready.

The former Hull FC boss has taken charge of 30 Super League games as Castleford boss winning 13 and losing the 17. This leaves him with a win percentage of 43.3%.

Crucially, he has lost his last five games (3 this season, 2 last season) and won just 3/10 of the most recent games as their play-off push last year unravelled.

He has won 9/16 at the Jungle and only won four away games from 14 as Castleford boss in Super League.

His biggest win was the 46-18 triumph over Hull FC at the MKM with the Tigers 18-14 down at halftime. They also beat Hull KR 32-0.

Crucially, the 36-0 defeat to Wigan this Friday was his biggest loss.

Interestingly, given his role in the upheaval at Cas to start 2023 after he was in a video circulated on social media,  Joe Westerman was his most used player play 29 out of 30 Super League games under Radford.