The five key areas new Castleford Tigers coach Danny McGuire must fix ahead of 2025

Danny McGuire will take up his first full-time head coach position in 2025 as he takes over from Craig Lingard at Castleford Tigers, and he has a huge job on his hands. 

It’s been a tough few years at The Jungle. Since the start of the 2023 campaign, they’ve had five head coaches and also found themselves pulled towards the bottom of Super League, but yet there are signs of hope coming through.

The club recently received a grade A from IMG, meaning that their Super League status is untouchable for the time being.

And behind the scenes, Martin Jepson has now taken over full control of the club. Elsewhere, McGuire has brought in trusted assistant Brett Delaney from Hull KR, and also dipped into the market to bring in NRL recruit Daejarn Asi.

But, there is still much more to be done if Castleford want to be serious contenders in 2025, and here are the areas McGuire must get right to turn the club around.

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Getting recruitment done early

They’ve already dipped their toe into the market, but there’s no denying Castleford still need to bring in some more reinforcements ahead of the new season.

A large chunk of their 2024 recruits have already left the club, and they still have an aging team on the whole. The signings of Zac Cini and Daejarn Asi from Parramatta Eels should inject some serious quality into the backline, but this cannot be the end of their recruitment process.

The Fords are in desperate need of some middles for 2025, with Liam Watts, Sylvester Namo and Muizz Mustapha the current options in that department as George Lawler looks set to feature in the back-row.

They had previously been linked with a play for Newcastle Knights prop Mat Croker, but he has now penned a new deal Down Under. Cas need to hit the market hard for at least two – maybe even three – middles.

A new back-rower would also be a clever bit of business from McGuire ahead of 2025, following the departures of Elie El-Zakhem, Nixon Putt and Luis Johnson.

A big thing with recruitment is getting it right, but with their target areas all coming in the pack, the sooner they get it done the better.

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Defence

Castleford’s main issues last season came in defence, and that should be their focus on the field moving into 2025.

They found themselves too easily beaten around the park in 2024, and ended up copping some mammoth defeats on the back of it, particularly in the early stages of the campaign.

The Tigers ended 2024 having conceded 735 points across their 27 Super League outings at an average of more than 27 points per game. That figure is simply too high to be competing at the right end of the table.

The appointment of Delaney as assistant should, and most likely will, fix some of their defensive issues. Recruiting the right front-rowers would help, too.

Strike options

A solid strike option is such a valuable asset for any Super League side, but Castleford really thrive off the back of it. Sam Wood excelled in that role in the early part of the 2024 campaign before getting injured.

They also had back-row duo Charbel Tasipale and Elie El-Zakhem helping him out in the opening rounds, but now, only Wood remains at the club.

George Lawler’s switch into the back-row should resolve some of this, but you feel they still need to bring in another option.

We still remain slightly under a cloud as to what new recruit Cini can do, but you feel if Cas can get someone off the other edge who provides some serious strike, that could transform their attack.

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Continued improvement

For all of the negatives about Cas’ 2024 season, they still finished on more points than in 2023 and finished a spot higher up the table in 10th when year-on-year comparisons were drawn.

One of the biggest challenges facing McGuire is ensuring that Cas continue that upward trajectory. All of the things mentioned above should play a big role in them seeing further improvement, but McGuire needs to make sure he takes them to bigger and better things in 2025.

The Challenge Cup could also be a real target for Castleford this season. As we’ve seen with Leigh Leopards, Hull KR and even Wigan Warriors over the past few seasons, getting a decent Cup run together could really generate some momentum, and in turn have a decent effect on the club overall.

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