“We believe we’ll be a Super League club” – Castleford Tigers’ Director “not interested” in outside noise

As the talk around IMG and what the composition of Super League in 2025 will be heats up, Castleford Tigers’ Director has claimed that the club believe they will be in Super League next year and rubbished suggestions otherwise.

Martin Jepson pumped money into the club back in December as he became one of the key investors and took on the role of Director and he’s now provided an update on the progress made in his first six months in charge.

In a video posted to social media ahead of a big announcement at 2pm, Jepson stated: “I just want to give you an update on where we are. We said we’d do it, it’s important that we feed back that to the fans. It’s nearly six months now since I joined the board and invested in the club.

“We’ve done a huge amount in those six months, there’s an awful lot more to come, we’ve got to keep moving and taking this club forward into the next Super League era.”

“We need you to believe” – Castleford Tigers Director’s plea to the fans

Jepson thanked the fans for their continued support and faith in the process but he asked for that faith to continue and go a step further as he claimed that Castleford Tigers believe they will be in Super League next year.

When the IMG preliminary grades were released, the Tigers ranked 13th meaning that they sat outside the all-important top twelve. However, they claimed an error in recording data saw them half a point shy of their true score, which would see them leapfrog Leigh Leopards.

Despite that, the RFL refused to adjust the preliminary grades meaning that Castleford Tigers do appear to be on the outside looking in if you take the initial preliminary gradings at face value. What they have done is focus on how they can improve elsewhere, something that Jepson referenced, but there are still questions over if it will be enough.

Jepson explained: “I wanted to address one item that’s been out there about whether we’re going to be a Super League club next year. I’m not really interested in what other people think. It’s all about what we do and we’re focusing on all those ground improvement works at the moment.

“You’ve seen the seats go up in the Princess Street stand. You’ll see the big screen arriving in a few weeks’ time. You’ll see other improvements happening over the course of the rest of the season and that’s all geared towards making sure that our facilities are upgraded, it’s a better experience for you as a fan and it meets those ranking points for IMG.

“We believe we’ll be a Super League club next year, we need you to believe in it as well.”

“Not good enough” – Loss to St Helens unacceptable

It might be okay to build their brand and score points off the field but league standing is still something that does earn points under IMG and currently, the Tigers are losing points with their on-field performance.

IMG’s grading takes the average position from the last three seasons as the on-field performance meaning that Castleford’s 2025 score will comprise their 2022, 2023 and 2024 standings.

Castleford’s initial score was calculated based on their seventh-placed finish in 2021, meaning that unless the club force a turnaround in the second half of the season to place seventh or higher, they will be losing points for their on-field performance.

Speaking about performance, Jepson said: “We know that on the field it’s been a difficult season, we can’t get away from that fact, but Craig and the team are working hard on the training pitch to make sure that we improve. I think the loan signings we’ve brought in have helped solidify the back line.”

He made specific reference to the embarrassing 60-4 loss to St Helens: “We know we had a disastrous weekend against St Helens, it’s not good enough, we’ve got to be better, but we’re focused on a big match against Hull FC in a couple of weeks’ time.”

With Hull FC having lost to London Broncos, nothing other than a win for Castleford Tigers will do really in that game as they aim to land their third Super League win of the season.