Casforum • The Leading Castleford Tigers Community

orrsome wrote: ↑08 Dec 2021, 11:48 I'd have given James Ford a chance (if he would leave York)

York came ninth in the championship last season and got absolutely embarrassed at Wembley against a injury/covid ravaged Fev team in a competition that hardly anyone took part in. Not only that, I saw nothing in the way they were playing to suggest his style of play was exciting to watch. Might be a nice lad James, but was is the obsession with him being the next big thing in coaching?

gateman wrote: ↑09 Dec 2021, 11:07 RADFORD is our coach give the lad a chance so get behind him, in six months time if we are near the bottom of the league that is the time to get the knives out

We have some cracking players this season and a tough coach. No way we will be near the bottom of the table. I could coach these players and do well so Radford and his side kick will do well for sure.

I’m hoping for a successful 2022 (obviously), and I think recruitment looks strong.
There are some good options in the back-line with pace and power. On the wing, Faraimo has been one of Hull’s best over the last few years, Greg Eden has a phenomenal scoring record and I just think Feki will SBW us what we’ve been missing over the last two years. In the centres, we have Jake Mamo who was Warrington’s top try-scorer last year and Jordan Turner who did the same at Cas. Throw in Mahe Fonua and there are three petty strong centre options.

In the forwards, I get the feeling that some of them aren’t really Radford’s style. We’ve got some decent size at prop with Watts, Smith and Matagi, but we are a bit light beyond that. We seem to have an abundance of back-rowers (Lawler, Edwards, Griffin, Massey, Milner, O’Neill, Blair, Westerman) - I wouldn’t be surprised to see one or two of them move on at the end of 2022 and be replaced by bigger, metre-making props to balance the forwards out a bit.

I’m not sure what I make of our halves, except to say that O’Brien has been our best since he joined. Trueman has too many games where he is anonymous; Richardson seems to be a confidence player who lacks consistency; McLelland has only played a handful of SL games, so is very much unproven. Radford will have some big calls to make for 2023 when Trueman and Richardson are both out-of-contract.

We do have the best number 9 in the league in Paul McShane.

In summary, I’m excited for 2022, but I think we have to remember that building a team takes time. There will no doubt be players in the 2022 squad that Radford wouldn’t have signed given the choice, and it’ll take him time to phase out those he doesn’t want and bring in players that he does.

westerbeast73 wrote: ↑10 Dec 2021, 23:08

gateman wrote: ↑09 Dec 2021, 11:07 RADFORD is our coach give the lad a chance so get behind him, in six months time if we are near the bottom of the league that is the time to get the knives out

We have some cracking players this season and a tough coach. No way we will be near the bottom of the table. I could coach these players and do well so Radford and his side kick will do well for sure.

We just need the half backs to click down the rest of the spine of the team Evalds Macca Westerman we have one of the strongest if not the strongest in the league

gateman wrote: ↑10 Dec 2021, 19:08 one thing we are not hearing so and so as broken down in training a big change from recent years

Daniel Smith said their has been more of focus on conditioning this pre season. Obviously doesn’t mean injuries won’t occur but clearly Powell was doing something wrong.

Feki seems to be going under the radar at the minute, which is good news. Really hoping he's fit, healthy and in a good place mentally. The [REMOVED] he's had to deal with from fans the last 2 years has been a disgrace at times.

heritage1926 wrote: ↑13 Dec 2021, 10:14 Feki seems to be going under the radar at the minute, which is good news. Really hoping he's fit, healthy and in a good place mentally. The [REMOVED] he's had to deal with from fans the last 2 years has been a disgrace at times.

still 3 or 4 months away from playing.

A change in the strength and conditioning team was drastically needed and thank God it happened.

Not only that there were infamous full contact matches one or two of the senior players asked for there to be a rethink on that I believe