New coach Ryan Carr reveals Castleford Tigers' 'huge advantage', outlines 'non-negotiables' for 2026 side
New boss Ryan Carr has pin-pointed a “huge advantage” he hopes will be at the heart of Castleford Tigers’ revival.
The Australian has taken over a club who haven’t finished outside Betfred Super League’s bottom three since 2022 and lost their A grade in the latest club rankings. But he reckons Tigers have an ace up their sleeve.
“A huge advantage of the club is the community we are in,” Carr insisted. “We are a rugby league community; passionate fans who care about the club deeply. We want to create that hostile environment for teams who come here because that’s what home grounds are for.
“Everyone values their home ground like that, but - I know from first-hand experience - on its day this rivals any team in the competition for a home ground. It’s our job to make the community feel excited about us and to give them the belief they can come and support us. We rely so heavily on the community and it’s our job to repay their faith and support with good performances and turn it into a huge advantage.”
Carr knows fans won’t accept lack of effort and he feels the same, promising a team which “competes really hard”. He stressed: “There’s a few non-negotiables we’ll operate with - the level we compete at and how hard our effort is every game is something we’re going to value very highly.
“We’re going to compete really hard, our effort levels will be extremely high and we’re going to do that consistently and we’re going to demand that of ourselves. We’re going to make sure we focus on building something special here at this club. We want everyone involved to be excited and to go on a journey we get some really good memories out of.”
Carr has been linked with several jobs in England since his single season in charge of Featherstone Rovers in 2019. Explaining why he chose Tigers, the former St George-Illawarra Dragons number two stressed: “I’ve always had ambitions to be a head-coach. I’ve been an assistant in Australia for the past six years, but I love having my own team.
“I have a good relationship with Chezzy [sporting director Chris Chester], who I’ve known since I was last over here. We share a lot of beliefs on and off the field and I think that’s important. I was confident in where I was coming into and where the club’s heading and the room for growth, which is really exciting. There’s a lot to work with here. I love a challenge and we’ve got a challenge here. We’re going to grab it with both hands and go forward.”
Players are in for testing this week and the first field training session of pre-season will be on Monday. Carr confirmed everyone other than Semi Valemei, who had Fiji commitments, will be in from day one. Brett Delaney and Scott Murrell are staying on in their assistant-coach roles and new medical and strength and conditioning staff will be announced during pre-season.