'High profile NRL coaches' keen on Castleford Tigers job as Chris Chester rules himself out
Some ‘high-profile’ coaches at NRL clubs have applied to become Castleford Tigers’ next team boss, director of rugby Chris Chester said today.
Leeds Rhinos legend Danny McGuire was sacked this week, just 18 games into a three-year contract. Speaking at Tigers’ weekly preview press conference, Chester stressed he does not want the role, but will lead the hunt for McGuire’s successor. The former Hull KR and Wakefield Trinity coach also confirmed McGuire’s assistants Brett Delaney, Scott Murrell and Danny Nickolay remain at the club and will effectively be in charge of the team for Sunday’s visit to Salford Red Devils.
Chester revealed Tigers have received “well over 20 applications already from UK coaches and overseas”. He would prefer to make an appointment in the next three to four weeks, but is prepared to wait until the end of the season, if necessary, to get the right candidate.
“I want a young, hungry coach who’s going to develop the players,” Chester said. “There’s a lot of NRL talent that have put their name forward. There’s some high-profile coaches over there that have applied and I think that’s really positive for the club.
“I think they can feel the direction the club wants to go in. It’s really exciting the calibre of applicants we’ve had emailed through and some phone calls I’ve had over the last 24-48 hours.”
Tigers’ statement announcing McGuire’s departure said Chester would “take over head-coach duties on an interim basis with immediate effect”, but he stressed he is simply “supporting” Delaney, Murrell and Nickolay, rather than running the show. Chester joined Tigers two months ago after a successful spell in charge of recruitment at Leigh Leopards, who were promoted to Super League and won the Challenge Cup during his time there.
He insisted: “I don’t want to be a head-coach again. I loved my time as a head-coach. I had eight years as a head-coach, but my primary focus is director of rugby. That’s the role I’m still doing now, making decisions on recruitment.”
Chester said the decision to axe McGuire was taken by Tigers’ board, which he is not a part of, though he was the one to break the news to the now ex-boss. “They felt as a club we had gone backwards,” he added. “In terms of points and results, we are in a worse position than we were in last year and the board decided they needed a fresh approach. I had to deliver the news to Danny straight after the board meeting and he was obviously very disappointed, as you would expect.
“I met Danny face-to-face. It didn’t go down well, Danny was disappointed with the decision, which I understand. There are new board members that wanted to see change so it’s always a difficult situation. I’ve got to support the board in every way I possibly can.”
Chester is also continuing with his role in charge of recruitment and said “six or seven” announcements are in the pipeline about players for next season, including some who will join Tigers from the NRL.