{"id":532089,"date":"2026-04-15T11:39:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T11:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/532089\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T11:39:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T11:39:10","slug":"craig-lingard-talks-coaching-future-amid-several-super-league-vacancies-plus-reflections-on-castleford-tigers-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/532089\/","title":{"rendered":"Craig Lingard talks coaching future amid several Super League vacancies plus reflections on Castleford Tigers’ exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Sheffield\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Sheffield Eagles head coach Craig Lingard has made it clear that he will not be leaving the Championship<\/a> club any time soon, despite several Super League coaching vacancies having opened up.<\/p>\n

At present, there are officially four Super League head coaching roles vacant either currently or for 2026, however, it\u2019s expected that Steve McNamara will soon be confirmed as the next Hull FC head coach.<\/p>\n

That still leaves three vacancies, including at Huddersfield Giants and Catalans Dragons who don\u2019t currently have a head coach. Lingard has confirmed his commitment to the project at Sheffield Eagles, whilst also speaking more openly on a possible future return to Super League.<\/p>\n

Appearing on BBC Radio Leeds<\/a>, Lingard explained that he sees Sheffield as a two to three year project that he\u2019s keen to be a part of when asked about those vacant coaching roles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m enjoying Sheffield at the minute,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cI think there\u2019s a project at Sheffield. I\u2019m getting my teeth into that. We\u2019re not where we need to be as a club and I think it\u2019s a long-term project and something I\u2019m really excited about.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the prospect of a Super League return at some point in the future, he said: \u201cI\u2019ve done it, I\u2019ve been there at Super League. It\u2019s not the be all and end all. I\u2019m not desperate to get back there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf an opportunity does at some point come for me to get back there then I might consider it but it\u2019s not the be all and end all for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to be happy with my coaching, happy with doing what I\u2019m doing and happy in my family life as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Craig Lingard opens up on Super League exit<\/p>\n

Lingard was also questioned on his time at Castleford Tigers, which was ultimately cut short after just one year,<\/a> with Danny McGuire hired to replace him.<\/p>\n

Asked if he could or should have done anything different, Lingard admitted that his belief in speaking his mind and being honest about the club\u2019s situation is something that perhaps proved costly.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cMaybe toed the line a little bit. I\u2019ve never been a yes man, I\u2019ll always speak my mind, maybe to a detriment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019m maybe a journalist\u2019s dream really because if you ask me a question it\u2019s almost like a bit of tourettes. I know what I should say and what I shouldn\u2019t say and I always come out with what I shouldn\u2019t say.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got to be honest with everything I do and me toeing the line or me giving a politician\u2019s answer is not me, so I wouldn\u2019t go back and change anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Offering more of that honesty, Lingard recalled the situation at Castleford which effectively saw the club take money from the playing budget and pump it into off-field projects to ensure they earned a higher IMG grade and thus Super League status \u2013 something that Lingard does not blame the club for.<\/p>\n

On his time in charge, he said: \u201cYou take \u00a3700,000 off a salary cap and I think we debuted 19 players that season. At the time, Castleford\u2019s Super League status was in jeopardy so they were spending that money, quite rightly, off the field to safeguard the long-term future of Castleford Tigers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what they needed to do. The club play such a huge part in that community, it\u2019s the lifeblood of the community\u2026 At that point in time with IMG, there was no guarantee that they could drop out and come straight back in so it was massively important that the club needed to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sheffield Eagles head coach Craig Lingard has made it clear that he will not be leaving the Championship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-532089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}