Analysing potential head coach options for Castleford Tigers, including club legend

Castleford Tigers are on the hunt for a new head coach for 2025 after parting ways with Craig Lingard.

Lingard spent the 2024 campaign as head coach of the Tigers after previously being an assistant: but the Tigers have now decided to head in a different direction.

Castleford are currently undergoing a heavy recruitment drive ahead of next year, and whoever succeeds Lingard will be hoping to better a 10th-placed finish than they managed in 2024.

But who could take on the role? Love Rugby League takes a look at six potential candidates for the gig at the Jungle.

Danny McGuire

This is the most obvious option at the time of writing, you feel.

The Leeds Rhinos great linked up with the Tigers ahead of 2024 on a two-year deal as an assistant to Lingard.

But with Lingard now having departed the Jungle, could McGuire step up and take on his first head coaching role within the professional ranks? He has said a couple of times over the years that he didn’t feel he was ready to be a head coach, but having spent several years as an assistant coach at Hull KR and Castleford, is now the time for McGuire to take the mantle?

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Scott Murrell

Again, this is another more obvious option than the left-field shouts we’ll come onto, but Murrell joined Castleford’s backroom staff ahead of the 2023 campaign as reserves head coach as well as being an assistant to then head coach Lee Radford at the time.

Murrell is a highly-respected young coach in the game and has recently been linked with the vacancy at his former club Halifax Panthers, who are also on the lookout for a new head coach with Liam Finn becoming Luke Robinson’s assistant at Huddersfield Giants.

Ian Watson

Watson will no doubt have aspirations of coaching in Super League again after departing Huddersfield Giants via ‘mutual consent’ back in July.

Could Watson be the the perfect fit for the Jungle? He did a good job as head coach of Salford between 2015 and 2020, winning 80 of his 164 games in charge of the Red Devils, guiding his boyhood club to reach the Super League Grand Final in 2019 and the Challenge Cup final the following season.

Watson took the Giants to the Challenge Cup final in 2022: but he was relieved of his duties earlier this season and hasn’t been involved in the game since.

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Michael Shenton

Stranger things have happened, haven’t they?

Shenton has been with Wakefield Trinity as an assistant to Daryl Powell since the the beginning of this year after being in the role of head of emerging talent at Hull FC.

The former England international is a bonafide Castleford legend, having scored 161 tries in 347 appearances for the Tigers.

It could be a tad too soon for Shenton in his coaching career and he’s probably content with being Powell’s assistant at Wakey, but as we say, stranger things have happened in rugby league.

Mike Eccles

Eccles has done an outstanding job with London Broncos over the last couple of years and is a highly-respected coach in the game, even being nominated by his peers for Super League’s Coach of the Year award in 2024 despite his side finishing bottom of the table following a difficult season due to circumstances both on and off the field this year.

Love Rugby League reported earlier this month that Mike Eccles had turned down the opportunity to join the coaching staff at Huddersfield in 2025 in a head of performance role – but he remains open about his future plans.

It was reported that Eccles had decided the opportunity with the Giants was not right for him at the present time, but his future with London still remains unclear.

Love Rugby League suggested that Eccles remains open about the prospect of continuing to coach London next year but is also open-minded about potential opportunities in Super League should they arise. It remains to be seen whether he’d be interested in the Cas job.

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Tony Smith

The Australian has been out of the game since April after being relieved of his duties as head coach of Hull FC following a poor start to the season.

Having previously managed Huddersfield, Leeds, Warrington, Hull KR and Hull FC – there aren’t many teams in Super League that Smith hasn’t coached! But Castleford is one club he’s never been involved with, and you’d suspect that Smith would no doubt be up for the opportunity to coach in Super League again.

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