Castleford owner breaks silence on Danny McGuire sacking and replacement timeframe
Castleford Tigers owner Martin Jepson - Image credit: Castleford Tigers
Castleford Tigers chairman Martin Jepson has outlined the factors behind the dismissal of Danny McGuire, citing that the club set for a head-to-toe rebuild in 2026.
Owner Jepson, who took over full control of the club back in October, initially handed McGuire a three-year deal ahead of the current campaign; however, the Fords have struggled to turn their fortunes around with just four wins in 19 games this season.
That poor run of form capped with a 30-12 defeat to Huddersfield Giants in round 17, after which McGuire was handed his marching orders.
‘We feel we’re in a reset’
The decision to dismiss McGuire has been met with controversy within the Castleford Tigers fanbase, as well as the wider rugby league world, but speaking on Sky Sports, Jepson outlined the key reasons behind his exit from the Jungle.
“These things are never easy,” Jepson told Sky Sports. “That’s no sleight on the people involved or Danny. He’s a long-standing star in the history of the game but we felt that we’re in a reset period. We’re already in a recruitment drive for next year and we’ve plans for what we want to do next year.
“We felt a change of direction was needed, and we’re looking ahead to next year. We start our planning for next year now and part of that is looking at our coaching setup.
He added: “I don’t regret what we did. He brought a new professionalism to the club but at the same time you have to make hard decisions and look at how things are moving in this moment in time.”
Sacking a coach mid-season is nothing new at Castleford. Since 2023, the club have seen Lee Radford, Andy Last, Danny Ward, Craig Lingard and McGuire all come and go, and they now begin the search for a sixth coach in three seasons.
In that time, the win records of each of the coaches has been around the 20% mark, which indicates the issue might not be the coaches but rather things above them, such as recruitment, and Jepson outlined the need to draw more out of the club’s playing squad.
“I can’t speak for what happened before my time. I only took control of the club at the end of May. I can’t comment on what happened before then. We need to get more out of the players. I don’t think the players are as bad as the performances suggest, but I inherited a team on a certain salary cap budget, and it’s difficult to turn those things around overnight.
“Look at the numbers on the back of our shirts, they’re into the 40s. We were weak in certain areas, and next season we can’t be doing that again. We need to be starting the season with a squad that we want to finish the season with.
“We’ve been tinkering with that over the course of the year. You have to look at the whole thing in the round and we felt it was the right thing to move in a different direction at this moment in time. You have to do what you think is the right thing.
‘There’s no fixed time limit’
While the fallout from McGuire’s departure is still being assessed, the club still need to find a permanent head coach for either the end of the current season or for the start of 2026. Earlier this week, director of rugby Chris Chester revealed as many as 20 applications had come in to become the new Fords boss, and names such as Ryan Carr and Jason Demetriou have been linked with the position too.
“There’s no fixed time limit on it,” Jepson said on the hunt for their new head coach. “We need the person in charge here for the start of pre-season and to have bought into the squad we have for next year. There’s no need to rush into it over the next week or two.
“We’ve been pleasantly surprised by the number of applications we’ve had without going out and touting for them, both from this country and Australia. We’ve a long list of people who have put their hands up so I’d like to think we are doing something right to have attracted that number of people because I’m not sure we’d have got those names 12 months ago.”
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