It’s been a crazy week or so at Castleford Tigers. Following the announcement last week that Martin Jepson had taken over day-to-day running of the club, the club surprised everyone when they confirmed that Craig Lingard had been relieved of his duties as head coach on Monday.

It was an interesting turn of events after a year of progression, but the focus for Castleford Tigers now is on putting a new coaching team in place, and that is something they have started the process of.

It has emerged that Danny McGuire has been earmarked as a coaching candidate. McGuire, of course, is the current assistant coach at Castleford Tigers and he is believed to be at the height of their thinking at this point.

It has been stressed to Rugby League Live that, at this point, no deal has been reached or agreed. McGuire is very much believed to be the frontrunner for the post and should he decide the time is right for him to step up and become head coach, it would be fair to assume that the position will be his. At this point though, no agreement is in place and discussions will likely take place throughout the rest of the week.

Castleford’s interest is perhaps not a surprise. After Danny Ward decided to not take the role permanently at the end of last season, McGuire was a coach of interest to the Tigers then, with Lingard eventually taking on the role.

Meanwhile, Rugby League Live revealed yesterday that as part of the club’s coaching restructure, Brett Delaney was being pursued to join the setup. Delaney, a close friend of McGuire after a trophy-laden playing spell together at Leeds Rhinos, is the current assistant coach to Willie Peters at Hull KR.

There is understood to have been contact between the two clubs now, however, there are a few complications that need ironing up to make the move come to fruition.

Most pressingly, Delaney is contracted to the Craven Park club until the end of the 2026 season so the Robins are within their rights to resist and an agreement may need to be found there. Beyond that, the club CEO, Paul Lakin, is away until the weekend taking a post-season break and so those discussions won’t progress until he returns.

In essence, patience may be required from Castleford supporters to allow the Tigers to get their ducks in a row and complete the transformation of the coaching department.

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