Chris Chester has confirmed when Ryan Carr will start at Castleford Tigers whilst also revealing the in-depth work the new boss is already doing.
Speaking to the media on Thursday, Chester confirmed that incoming coach Carr is in the process of watching every Castleford Tigers game from the 2025 season with the incoming coach said to be “very detailed”.
Chester also confirmed: “I had a good conversation with him this morning around the work that he’s doing. Individually he’s going to make sure that he gets around every single player between now and the start of pre-season.
“He’s clipped games and I think he’s up to round 11 this morning, so he might be up to round 12, round 13 now when I finish this call. He’s very detailed, he’s looking forward to getting here.”
Castleford Tigers coach to visit NBA team ahead of move to England
Carr is also set for a trip to the States with the incoming head coach looking to expand his knowledge with visits to a high-level sporting university and an NBA team. As such, Chester and those at Castleford are ensuring everything is ready in terms of his visa for when he arrives in England.
Chester explained: “He’s doing some CPD (Continuing Professional Development), I think he’s going to Oregon University and then he’s going to the LA Clippers as well, so I think there’s a month there in October.
“We’re on with his visa now, that’s my focus and making sure that we can get that visa turned around in that short space of time, because he’s got that trip booked for 3rd October, so I just need to make sure that all that gets completed sooner rather than later.
“I think he’s here 31st October, or the 1st November, and we’ll look at a start date of that 3rd November.”
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It was also confirmed that there will not be a change in assistant coaches with Brett Delaney and Scott Murrell set to remain, but some changes will be made.
“He’s happy to go with what we’ve got in terms of the coaches, we’ve had some good conversations,” explained Chester.
“I think it’s important that we’ve got some kind of stability and some continuity around the club but we’re looking at a head of performance that he’s worked with in the past and in terms of the medical we’ll interview him over the next couple of days and hopefully have somebody in situ.”
Perhaps most interesting to Castleford fans would be the tease of more overseas signings, however, the Tigers are currently full on the overseas quota which may mean some changes.
Chester said: “There’s some players that he’s mentioned that he’s spoken to overseas that he wants me to try and bring over. Yeah, just trying to juggle all that as well as the daytime job and coaching these guys.”
