Castleford Tigers recruitment update as Craig Lingard reveals budget change and ‘movement’ pledge

Castleford Tigers head coach, Craig Lingard, has said he is ‘confident’ the club will be ‘moving forward’ with their recruitment ahead of 2025, and detailed the club will be moving with a bigger budget too. 

At the time of writing, Parramatta Eels man Zac Cini is the only new face arriving at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle for 2025, but Louis and Innes Senior have also joined the club on a full-time basis after loan spells at the club in 2024.

Castleford Tigers to see ‘movement in the next week or two’

Despite the relative lack of movement from the Tigers, Lingard remains confident his side will be bringing in new recruits in the coming weeks.

“It would be nice to get everything done ASAP and get all the players over the line as soon as we can so we know what we’ve got,” he told the media ahead of his side’s final league game against Huddersfield Giants. “But that doesn’t always happen. Hopefully, though, we’ll see some movement on that respect in the next week or two.”

He also added that they need to find ‘the right player’ to bring in to help continue their improvement in 2024.

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“It’s massive for every club, but significantly for us to go into this second year of the three year plan. It’s massively important we get the right players that can develop what we’ve improved on this year and hopefully we can do that.”

“Conversations” with Director of Rugby

There has been reports of growing frustration Lingard, as he awaits a green light on certain players, but the former Batley Bulldogs boss said he’s having conversations with the club’s Director of Rugby, Danny Wilson, and will get some players over the line in the coming weeks.

“I’m having conversations with the Director of Rugby, but we’re confident we are moving forward,” Lingard said.

“Hopefully in the next week or so we can get something – whether they’re announced or not as long as the deals are done behind the scenes – but we’re hopeful it’s going to be pushed forward this week or next.”

The club have been heavily linked with a play for Parramatta Eels half-back and Samoan international Daejarn Asi, and he could be one of those players confirmed in the weeks ahead.

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Increased budget

The Tigers are in a tricky position though recruitment wise, as they hold one of the lowest budgets in Super League; however Lingard confirmed they will have some more money in the bank to play with for 2025.

“We’re hoping the buget goes up. That was the plan that the budget goes up year-on-year. How much that increases I’m not sure, there’s a few moving parts to that; whether certain people who are contracted for next year are still here or not. There’s lots of moving parts on the final budget that will be available.”

As Lingard alluded to, there could be some cap space freed up in the near furture, with PNG international Nixon Putt linked with a return down under after a difficult maiden season in Super League.

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