“You wouldn’t want your kid there” – What Blake Austin said about Castleford Tigers before move

Leeds Rhinos, Castleford Tigers, Warrington Wolves, Wigan Warriors and many others have been involved in 11th hour transfer business before tomorrow’s deadline.

Wigan Warriors brought in Tyler Dupree with Brad Singleton joining Salford Red Devils and Warrington have brought back Thomas Mikaele.

But one of the most interesting stories has centred around Blake Austin’s future at Leeds.

The saga has been one of the most complex and intriguing with the former Warrington man being incredibly out spoken especially after some recent great form.

However, some of his comments have rubbed Leeds fans the wrong way and with a deal not being agreed between him and the Rhinos the halfback has left the club immediately on loan to join Castleford Tigers and help fend off the threat of relegation.

This comes after some interesting comments he made about the Tigers’ scholarship system recently on the JBK Show.

Speaking on the podcast, he was explaining why Leeds’ academy was more appealing and said:

“If your kid is 16, you’re going to want him at Leeds, the only alternative is a Castleford scholarship where their systems, stadiums and set ups are you know.

“You wouldn’t want your kid there if you have the choice.”

Though Austin should be commended for his honesty on the JBK Show and in Sky Sports interviews, there is no doubt that these comments have played into the saga.

In fact a clip from the podcast surfaced on social media about the friendly against New Zealand last year which didn’t please fans.

“I’ve got a funny story actually. So we played in the Grand Final, right? And our owner, he loves the buck. Any chance to make a bit of money he loves it right,” Austin said.

“So we finish our Grand Final you obviously have mad Monday so we have Monday, Tuesday and we have a bit of a drink.

“The following Saturday he’s organized a game for us to play against New Zealand, just after the GF when we’ve just been on the piss for five days.

“Ten of our boys were in Ibiza and got back two days before the game and our owner was adamant that if you didn’t show up and play for this match, he had the right to terminate our contract.

“So poor Rhyse Martin was, he’s due to play in the World Cup for PNG, and he says, Gary, ‘if I get injured in this match, I miss a World Cup, can you excuse me from this match?’

“He pulled out his contract and read him word for word exactly why he had to play in the match so oh man it was it was the weirdest experience.

“The funny story is I looked at the Kiwis team and I thought you know what we’re half a chance. It was like 82-6 or something I’m like I fractured my eye socket. We didn’t even want to be out there.”