Ryan Carr’s three key priorities assessed following Castleford Tigers appointment

Castleford Tigers have finally announced Ryan Carr as their new head coach, but he has a lot on his plate ahead of the new season.

The Fords have endured yet another bumpy campaign, headlined by the departure of previous head coach Danny McGuire last month. At the time of writing, they sit 10th in the Super League table and are on a run of four defeats from their past five, and sit on an aggregate score of 180-54.

Despite the club being in a sticky situation, the appointment of Carr brings about fresh hope as the new coach sets out his stall for a project at the OneBore Stadium.

“It’s an exciting opportunity, it’s a proud historic club is Cas and I’m aware of where the clubs been, where it came from and where its going,” he said of his appointment.

“I feel a lot of excitement on the direction that the club is heading in the near future. It deserves to be better than where it is, and that’s where we need to take it.

“I feel the opportunity, and the room for growth is really fast at the club. I’m excited to get started.”

But, what should his key priorities be ahead of his maiden season in charge? Well, here is our look at his in-tray.

Recruitment

It is absolutely essential Carr gets his recruitment right for next season, and even beyond. Over the past few seasons, Castleford have done lots of business to no real avail. 2024 saw almost virtually all of their off-season recruits depart at the end of the season, while Sylvester Namo and Judah Rimbu depart partway through the current campaign. They cannot afford repeats of this under Carr.

There are signs of change on that front, and the addition of Chris Chester – one of the best player recruiters in the league – will help things along massively too, but the proof will lie in the pudding.

With Carr now in place, he and Chester can put their heads together to properly strengthen the squad and build for both the short-term and long-term.

Consistency

At times, Castleford have been brilliant, but that’s quickly been marred by horrific losses.

Take this previous block as the perfect representation of that. A poor loss to Salford was quickly remedied with a heroic win over Warrington Wolves.

That seemed to be the turning point; however, it proved to be the opposite.

St Helens, Hull KR and bitter rivals Leeds Rhinos leave them back at square one, maybe even square zero if that’s even a thing.

This has been replicated across the season, too. They pushed Hull KR to the wire in round one, before getting torn apart by St Helens a week later. Impressive wins over Huddersfield Giants and Salford between the end of April and mid-May were sandwiched with heavy losses to Wakefield Trinity and Leeds.

A gutsy away win over Hull FC in June was also swiftly followed by a heavy loss to Hull KR at home.

Castleford are a team with lofty ambitions, especially now with Carr coming in, and if they want to achieve that they need to find a way to string runs of performances and results together.

Put his own stamp on things

Castleford have seen five coaching changes in the past three seasons. Lee Radford, Andy Last, Danny Ward, Craig Lingard and McGuire have all come and gone since the club last reached the play-offs, but that gives Carr even more of a chance to put his own stamp on things.

This feels the perfect chance for him to completely overhaul the foundations of the club and turn it around.

DoR Chester has already said there will be player exits, but a rebuild is more than just that. It’s a proper cultural reset, it’s a changing of mindset, it’s a fresh start, and Carr needs to seize that opportunity with both hands.

Yes, this has been said for every Castleford coach in the last few years, and yes there will always be positive words coming out of the camp when a fresh face comes in, but this feels as good chance as any to create the Castleford 2.0.

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