Castleford Tigers have six more players still to announce for next season, says owner and chairman Martin Jepson.
The Tigers have confirmed two new signings for next season already, with Blake Taaffe and Brock Greacen joining the club from Down Under. Taaffe saw his deal announced on Monday, with the full-back making the move from Canterbury Bulldogs, where he has made 13 appearances over the last two seasons.
Taaffe has put pen to paper on a three-year deal and he’ll be joined by a raft of new faces over the coming weeks as Chris Chester makes his mark on the playing squad and builds next year’s squad for incoming head coach Ryan Carr.
Director of rugby Chester has made some bold predictions about next season already, when speaking to the press, but Jepson has expanded further on what’s to come and outlined his excitement.
“Yeah, we’ve also got Joe Stimson,” Jepson said in an interview posted on Castleford Tigers’ official channels this week. “We got Joe in early.
“He’ll be on a deal to be part of next year’s squad and I think we’ve got another six players that we’ve signed that we’re yet to formally release. That will make nine players coming in next year to add to the squad we’ve got this year, there’ll be some outgoings as well.
“Hopefully people will be excited and enthused by the quality of players we’re bringing in. I’m determined to up the standard of quality for next season.
“We sent out a mission statement a few weeks ago as a board of directors and we have a very focused board now, a lot of people are giving up a lot of time at no expense to try and get the club back on it’s feet again. We want to be competing at the top end of the table and the signings we’re making are with the intention of making sure that we do compete at the top end of the table.
“The signings we’ve announced, there’s more to come. Sit tight and we’ll fill everybody in with the detail over the next few weeks.”
Of course, the most significant signing Castleford will make going into next season is that of head coach Carr, who will be making the move from the NRL, where he currently serves as an assistant at St George Illawarra Dragons, to Super League.
“It’s probably the most pivotal appointment we’ll make so we wanted to get it right and the reality is that the team for next year won’t be the team that is out on the pitch at the moment, there’s a lot of new signings coming on board,” Jepson added on the arrival of Carr.
“Really the focus was get the right man on board and make sure that person is on board and ready for the start of pre-season training. Chris Chester did all of the pre-interviews along with Danny Wilson and whittled it down from many applicants to the last four or five and ultimately, the last two.
“Firstly, he knows the area, he’s lived here before, he has family and friends in the area so he’s not coming anywhere which is a surprise to him. He was keen to come back, he sees unfinished business in Super League over here but also his presentation and approach was very detailed.
“He’d done a proper analysis, he showed that he’s already got underneath the skin of the club. He did a proper analysis of the squad, style of play and what he wants to bring. He’s a young, ambitious coach, he wants to play an attacking style of football and I think he will fit in very, very well with what we’re looking for and the brand of rugby we want to play.
“Also, the discipline he’ll bring. His ethos is exactly what we’re trying to bring to Castleford, it’s all about improving the quality of what we’ve got and making everybody’s approach better on and off the field.”
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