Castleford Tigers head coach Craig Lingard has spoken openly about his side’s troubles in recruiting players for 2025, claiming that the market boasts “slim pickings” and that the unlikely prospect of silverware hinders them.
Many of the high-quality players that were off-contract have been poached by other clubs for 2025 with players such as John Asiata, Ryan Hall and Tom Johnstone all being confirmed to be on the move come November.
There is also a host of players that are reported to have signed deals elsewhere such as St Helens stalwart Tommy Makinson who confirmed he’ll end his 14-year stint with the club to depart, with Catalans Dragons reported to have tied him down.
For Castleford Tigers though, the signings have been limited to just two. Innes and Louis Senior are on loan at The Jungle in 2024 and the pair have recently signed new deals keeping them there until 2026.
What Craig Lingard has said about Castleford Tigers’ recruitment?
Despite the confirmation of the Senior twins remaining at the club for 2025, the lack of new faces and signings, or even the suggestion of them, is something that has frustrated Castleford Tigers’ fans.
Speaking about the club’s recruitment situation to BBC Radio Leeds this week, Lingard said: “If players want to be winning something over the next 12 months, it’s not going to be a Castleford. We’re not going to be challenging the top end of the table at Castleford, realistically.”
“With the market being as it is, some of the players are commanding a lot of money,” Lingard explained, before accepting: “We’ve got to understand that certain players might be out of our reach because of where they are in their career so that sometimes limits the players that are available to us as well.”
It looks rather bleak in that respect but it’s also a realistic point of view with the Tigers being one of the clubs who aren’t 100% certain of their Super League status in 2025, on account of the fact that they’re not a Grade A club.
Director, Martin Jepson, has rubbished talk that the club won’t be in the top tier though, arguing: “We believe we’ll be a Super League club next year, we need you to believe in it as well.”
It could still be that the uncertainty does limit the Tigers in the market. But, in the aftermath of Castleford’s abject performance against Leeds yesterday, something has to change.
Here are three players that they should aim to sign for 2025.
Tex Hoy (Castleford Tigers)
This one is a little bit of a cop-out given that Hoy is currently contracted to the Tigers following his release from Hull FC but the Australian is only committed to the club until the end of the season.
His performances in Black and Amber have shown exactly why Hull FC brought him to Super League with the 24-year-old being unlocked since his move to the club. He’s earned himself a Super League Player of the Month nomination, and Cas need to make him their priority signing for 2025.
Gil Dudson (Warrington Wolves)
Welsh international Dudson is already a man on the move with Warrington having loaned him out for the season to Salford Red Devils. That would presumably indicate that he’s not in Sam Burgess’ plans, but that Salford may have the edge on signing him if they’re interested.
Should Paul Rowley not want to keep Dudson then Craig Lingard should be on the phone with the forward being at Cas being something that has struggled at times, particularly through injury and unavailability, often of overseas players.
Bringing in Dudson adds experience, size and power to a pack that screams out for it and would allow the incredibly pacey backfield to play off the back of that front-foot forward approach.
A left-field pick but James Meadows actually played under Craig Lingard whilst at Batley and with the expectation being that London Broncos will be relegated, then perhaps Meadows could find a move to a Super League club in Castleford.
He’s able to play in either the halves or at full-back in a pinch meaning that he offers versatility and more importantly a genuine option, with Meadows starting to show Super League quality of late. Cas have confirmed that Danny Richardson is leaving meaning that off-contract Meadows could be a savvy acquisition and one that would see him reunite with Craig Lingard.
Liam Knight (Canterbury Bulldogs)
As referenced earlier, prop could be a position that Cas really need help at with the potential that Liam Watts could call time on his career and the fact that fellow forwards Brad Martin and Samy Kibula (one-year extension option) are also off-contract.
If they can find the quota spot, something that may be necessitated by either missing out on Tex Hoy or choosing not to extend Charbel Tasipale’s deal, then Liam Knight could be what Castleford Tigers are looking for.
The 29-year-old is coming into his prime years for the position and has struggled for game time at Canterbury since his release from South Sydney Rabbitohs where he played 66 times in four-and-a-half seasons.
He’s currently injured but has been playing in the New South Wales Cup where he’s impressed in his eight games. With Canterbury confirmed to have signed Leigh Leopards man Tom Amone, perhaps Knight will be allowed to walk.
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