THE news broke this morning that Lee Radford would be leaving the Castleford Tigers after just a year in charge of the West Yorkshire club.
Radford narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Super League play-offs last season but has lost all three games in 2023 so far.
As such, by mutual agreement, the former Hull FC boss has departe, but where will he be heading?
Rugby union
Before Radford took the Castleford coaching job, he almost linked up with the Dallas Jackals – an American rugby union side created in June 2020. That would have seen Radford become the inaugural coach. Owned by an investment group including Neil Leibman of the Texas Rangers and Top Tier Sports, the Jackals went with Agustín Cavalieri, but could Radford still be tempted by a move to the Americas? The likes of Brett Hodgson, Mike Forshaw, Martin Gleeson and Jon Clarke are just of some those names that have made the switch to the 15-man code so it wouldn’t be surprising.
NRL assistant
Perhaps the likeliest destination for Radford considering his affiliation with Samoa from his time as assistant coach to Matt Parish during the Rugby League World Cup. The former Hull boss spent an extended time in Australia celebrating with the Samoan team after they made it to the World Cup Final with Rugby League Live explaining Radford having links with current Cronulla Sharks boss Craig Fitzgibbon from their time at Hull together. It would follow the trend of Super League head coaches becoming assistants Down Under with the likes of Justin Morgan, Richard Agar and Kristian Woolf amongst those names.
International job
Of course, people could argue that being an international coach isn’t a full-time job, but Shaun Wane fills that mould at England and it certainly could work with Radford part of the Samoa World Cup side that made it to the final at the back end of last year. Whether Matt Parish would continue doing the job remains to be seen, but Radford certainly enjoyed his time as second-hand man to Parish.
