NINE years ago, Castleford Tigers were preparing to lift the League Leaders’ Shield and finish top for the first time ever in their history.
Since then, the West Yorkshire club’s demise has been well documented.
Even in the latter stages of Daryl Powell’s time at The Jungle, the Tigers’ bubble appeared to have burst.
But following Powell’s exit at the end of the 2021 season, the Tigers have had seven head coaches: Lee Radford, Andy Last, Danny Ward, Craig Lingard, Danny McGuire, Chris Chester and now Ryan Carr.
Granted, Chester was an interim appointment but all of those appointments have failed to inspire.
Lingard arguably did the best with such limited resources whilst Radford missed out on the play-offs by two points in 2022.
But, after 2022, points tallies of 12 (2023), 15 (2024), 12 (2025) and 14 (currently) have demonstrated that something is going consistently wrong at the club.
Owner Martin Jepson has invested huge amounts of his own money to improve the off-field structure, including a new 4G pitch, fan zone and changing rooms at the newly-named OneBore Stadium.
On the field, Jepson has done his utmost to bankroll a team capable of at least having an outside shot of the play-offs, with mid-season recruits Phoenix Laulu-Togaga’e, Jack Brown and Tyler Dupree impressing in recent weeks.
The man himself must be tearing his hair out at what has befallen his beloved club after so much optimism before a ball had been kicked in 2026.
Carr, moreover, has cut an increasingly frustrated figure as the season has gone on, with his comments following Castleford’s 48-18 loss to Warrington Wolves hitting the headlines.
In the wake of that defeat, which saw the Tigers collapse from a 16-6 lead, Carr hit out at “common denominators” plaguing his side.
Just the week before, Castleford went down 52-14 to local rivals Wakefield Trinity, with a similar collapse taking place after being 10-6 up.
In the week prior to that, too, a number of outbursts were caught on Sky Sports microphones as the Tigers overcame Leeds Rhinos.
Carr has shipped out players during the season – Zac Cini, Brad Singleton and Chris Atkin for example – whilst others continue to be linked with a move away.
The likes of Joe Stimson, Daejarn Asi, Tom Weaver, Mikaele Ravalawa, Sam Hall and Cain Robb are set to move on at the end of the current campaign.
Such a large turnover is not exactly conducive to earning results, especially when a whole host of players know they won’t be at the club in 2027.
Now, after Love Rugby League reported that Carr has been suspended pending an internal investigation, things have come to a head.
The Australian clearly cares about Castleford – he wouldn’t get so irate pitchside if he didn’t – but sometimes there are better ways to go about it.
His post-match press conferences have become notoriously icy with his players often taking the brunt of his comments.
Would it be better to keep his aims at players behind closed doors? Maybe, but it’s obvious he has become fed up of the wildly inconsistent nature of his side, not just between games but in games themselves.
When the momentum starts to shift, the Tigers simply have no answer, even if they start games on the front foot.
If Carr leaves or gets sacked, where does that leave the likes of Damien Cook, Mat Feagai and Tyrell Sloan? All of whom have joined Castleford on the premise of their former coach being at the helm.
Chester said when Carr interviewed for the Castleford job that the latter’s attention to detail was head and shoulders above other candidates.
But there can be as much detail as Carr wants – if players don’t enact a coach’s plan on gameday, then there is a problem.
Carr won’t be in the dugout for Castleford’s home clash against Hull KR on Friday, so who will? Nobody knows as of yet.
But it will be interesting to see how the players respond and how the fans will react too.
It’s definitely going to be one to watch.