Albert Vete hopes to bring aggression to the Castleford Tigers’ pack next season after his switch from Hull KR was confirmed.
Vete is swapping East Yorkshire for West by joining Lee Radford’s side on a two-year contract.
He brings significant NRL experience, playing a combined 54 matches for New Zealand Warriors and Melbourne Storm, while he helped the Robins reach the Super League play-off semi-finals in his first season in Super League in 2021.
The Auckland-born Tongan international hopes to help return Castleford to the play-offs after three consecutive misses.
“I try to be a force on the field with my running and my defence and I feel that I can definitely add to the Castleford squad with my aggression,” said 29-year-old Vete.
“I think Castleford were really unlucky to miss out on the finals this year because they were building a lot of momentum and I think the injuries they got were really unlucky.
“I’ve already had a little taste of finals footy over here and I want to get back there and do my part for the team to make sure we put ourselves in that position.
Vete hopes to learn from the coaching of Radford, once among Super League’s top forwards himself and a two-time Grand Final winner.
“I feel Radders is going to help a lot with my performance on the field and off the field,” he said.
“He’s a fellow front rower so he knows what it’s like. He’s seen it and done it all before, so I can’t wait to get in amongst it and learn as much as I can off him.”
Radford said of Vete: “He’s something a bit different and has a different shape to what we’ve got in the forward pack at the moment.”
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