Castleford Tigers 2025 season review
- Overview
- Highs
- Lows
- 2025 RLB Player of the Year – George Lawler
- Reasons to be positive in 2026
- My 2025 prediction – 12th
- Final 2025 position – 11th (+1)
Overview
2025 won’t live long in the memory for Castleford fans, as their side finished 11th with just six wins all season.
Before their Super League campaign even got underway, they were dumped out of the Challenge Cup by Championship side Bradford Bulls, and they went on to win just one of their opening eight league games – against struggling Salford.
There were a few highs scattered across the season, including a spirited win over neighbours Wakefield in Round 25, but overall it was a pretty forgettable campaign for Cas.
Highs
That Round 25 win over Wakefield was a sign of what Cas are capable of when they put it together.
There was an impressive win at Hull FC in Round 14 as well, while some of the younger players in the squad enhanced their reputations when given a chance – most notably Fletcher Rooney, Jenson Windley and Alfie Lindsay.
Lows
Sacking a coach mid-season is never a good sign, and Danny McGuire’s demise had looked inevitable for a number of weeks before it finally happened in early July.
The Tigers were poor at both ends of the pitch, and not including Salford, they had the worst defence in the league by some distance, and the second-worst attack.
They were nilled on two occasions, conceded 60+ on another two occasions, and between Rounds 20 and 24, they scored just 22 points whilst conceding 224.
2025 RLB Player of the Year – George Lawler
In a season of few highs at the Jungle, George Lawler was a model of consistency in the Cas pack. The prop missed just one game all year and got five tries to go with his 974 tackles across the season – a club high.
Reasons to be positive in 2026
Cas’ rebuild for 2026 was well underway before the campaign had finished, and a number of departures and incomings have already been confirmed.
Chief among them is the new head coach – Ryan Carr – who arrives from the NRL after a stint as an assistant at the Dragons. The Tigers will be hoping he can replicate some of the magic that Willie Peters has managed to conjure up at Hull KR.
The playing squad’s got plenty of new faces coming into it too, including Blake Taafe, Mikaele Ravalawa and Semi Valemei from Down Under, plus Super League stalwarts like Darnell McIntosh and Liam Hood.
My 2025 prediction – 12th
Final 2025 position – 11th (+1)
Salford’s disastrous season skewed this slightly, but I’m delighted with this prediction. Cas were woeful in 2025 and their 11th-place finish came as no surprise to me. Next year’s already looking more promising though with some of the players coming in.
