Brett Ferres headlines Goole’s retiring stars as Super League champion gears up for head coach move
Brett Ferres in action for Goole Vikings in 2025
Brett Ferres headlines four Goole Vikings stars hanging up their boots, with the 17-time England international set to take charge as the Championship club’s new head coach ahead of 2027.
Earlier this year, it was confirmed that current Goole head coach Scott Taylor would depart at the end of the season having landed a role as an assistant coach back at Hull FC.
Having been in charge of the Vikings for two seasons since their arrival into the professional section of the British game’s pyramid, Taylor will form a key part of new Hull boss Steve McNamara’s coaching team from 2027.
Accordingly, that leaves a vacancy to be filled at the Victoria Pleasure Grounds – and LoveRugbyLeague exclusively revealed back in June that club captain Ferres would be the man to take on the role.
As he prepares to move into the head coach role, Goole have now officially announced that he will retire following this weekend’s final game of the 2026 campaign at home against Doncaster alongside three team-mates.
Four Goole stars to retire including Brett Ferres
Castleford-born Ferres – who turned 40 in April – will bring the curtain down on a career which has seen him make more than 470 professional appearances.
Winning the World Club Challenge in 2006 with Bradford Bulls, the stalwart then lifted a Super League Leaders’ Shield with Huddersfield Giants seven years later in 2013.
His sole Super League title was earned in 2017, when he helped Leeds Rhinos to victory against Castleford Tigers at Old Trafford in the Grand Final.
The Rhinos were the last club Ferres donned a shirt for in Super League, with stints at Featherstone Rovers, Doncaster and Goole following.
As he hangs up his boots on Saturday afternoon, he will be joined in doing so by Jack Aldous, Jack Coventry and Ben Dent.
Like Ferres, all three of those players have been with Goole since the start of the 2025 campaign in League 1, making a combined 57 appearances across all competitions for the club.
Aldous began his career with Super League outfit Hull FC, and registered a sole senior appearance for the Black and Whites. That came back in May 2011 during a Challenge Cup tie at home against Oldham.
Coventry’s career has spanned more than a decade – with appearances on his CV for seven clubs including Hunslet, Keighley Cougars and Goole.
Dent meanwhile is a one-time Germany international having represented the European nation via his heritage, scoring a try to mark the occasion against Czechia back in August 2018.
He retires having made over 100 career appearances, with the bulk of those coming in a York Knights shirt.
