BACK in February 2013, Castleford Tigers were a club in turmoil.
With previous chief executive Steve Ferres walking out of The Jungle, the club failing on the field under Ian Millward and the fans aghast at the situation, the West Yorkshire club turned to local man Steve Gill to turn things around.
Gill, who had been a regular at The Jungle since March 1970, was thrown out of the frying pan and into the fire, moving up from the head of youth to interim CEO.
After six weeks in the role, Gill was appointed as the permanent chief executive by owner Jack Fulton – a man who had bankrolled Castleford for a number of years.
That appointment started the cogs whirring of a Castleford revival with Millward’s sacking early on in the Super League season paving the way for Daryl Powell to become head coach.
Gill and Powell transformed the Tigers on and off the field from perennial strugglers to a side competing for silverware. And now the former has explained how difficult it was to build such a strong culture but that it was necessary to survive.
“It had its tough times without a question of a doubt. It’s hard sometimes when you are protecting the club from what’s happening with fans not knowing and thinking it’s all doom and gloom,” Gill told League Express.
“It was always tough, we got the right people in and we started to progress. Once fans started to buy into what we were doing and could see we were building a team I think it changed a lot of people’s perspectives on what we were doing.
“Ultimately, it was about having a good team and a good outlook and the family club I wanted to build on which we didn’t have at that time.
“Everyone felt a part of it which was really important to me from the fans right down to the cleaners. That was so important to success and I firmly believe that.”
Gill points to the signing of one player in particular as the catalyst for change on the field.
“It was a few stepping stones. Players don’t come available all at once, we did buy a few and had to release a few that we couldn’t afford to keep.
“We brought people in that were less individual but more of a team player which is how we looked at it to play week in and week out.
“Daryl was a real important person in that, we discussed a lot of players. We made a few of mistakes and you can never read what’s inside players’ heads.
“I think bringing in Liam Finn in 2014 made a change for us in terms of his ability to read the game and play to structure.
“That’s probably where we kicked on but we had a lot of trial and tribulations with players as you can imagine.
“We tried to protect the players as well as the fans because sometimes you can become a laughing stock and lose faith. I thought as a club we did really well on that.”
Within Gill’s period at the club, the Tigers made the Challenge Cup Final in 2014 as well as the Grand Final in 2017, but it was the image of long-serving Castleford owner Jack Fulton – who sadly passed away in September 2015 – leading the team out at Wembley that will forever stick in Gill’s mind.
“The most satisfying moment for me throughout my time at Cas was watching Jack (Fulton) leading the team out at Wembley.
“It was so richly deserved and nothing outside family life comes a close second.”
Gill spent five incredible years at The Jungle, overseeing one of the greatest revivals of a sporting team, but it was an easy decision to leave in the end for the 63-year-old.
“It wasn’t really too difficult of a decision to leave, I felt there was a bit of an undercurrent prior to the success we were having,” Gill continued.
“People are always thinking they can do better, but I wasn’t happy with that undercurrent so it wasn’t too hard to leave. I was ready for out.
“I was ready to go and refresh myself and spend some time with my grandson who sings a beautiful ‘Sweet Caroline.’
“He’s just started playing rugby and thankfully he’s a Tigers fan! When it’s a bit warmer I will take him down to The Jungle and if I do hopefully I get a warm reception. I haven’t been since 2017.”
