JOE WESTERMAN is excited to reunite with Jacob Miller for the third time in his career.
The veteran forward played alongside Miller when the halfback first made the move to Super League with Hull FC ten years ago.
They were back together at Wakefield Trinity in 2020, playing two seasons in tandem before Westerman re-joined Castleford Tigers last year.
Now Miller has made the short move from Wakefield to Castleford himself, tasked with forming an experienced halfback partnership with Gareth Widdop.
His link-up with ball-playing loose-forward Westerman will also be important to the Tigers’ chances of improving on last season’s seventh-place finish.
“I played with Milky (Miller) at Wakefield and played well with him,” said former England international Westerman.
“We could talk, I’d know what he was doing and he’d know what I was doing. It was good to be playing with him again.
“He looks good with Gaz Widdop, so it’s going to be interesting.
“If we can get things right with our spine playing together a lot more, I think off the back of that will come more wins.”
Injuries, particularly in that department, hampered their chances last term and Westerman added: “If we can keep our spine fit and keep our players on the field, I’m sure we’ll do a job and we’ll hopefully be challenging.”
Miller is reunited at Castleford with Lee Radford, who coached Westerman across two separate spells at Hull.
Radford is approaching his second season in charge at the Jungle and the squad is now more comfortable with his methods, according to Westerman.
“At the start of the year we didn’t quite grasp Radders’ way to play, but certainly towards the back end of the year I thought it started happening.
“We all bought into his style of play. It was different to the previous coach and that’s no disrespect, everyone has their own style.
“We did (adapt) and we’ve had another pre-season now.”
On a personal level, Westerman remains determined to put his best foot forward with his hometown club which is where he started his career.
“I always said I wanted to go back, but I didn’t want to go back and not be able to be at the best level,” he said.
“Last year I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately we didn’t get to where we wanted to but personally, I thought I went well and I did myself proud.
“Living in Cas, I’m always walking around there so it’s not a place in which you want to be playing badly every week.
“I want to do well with Cas and it would be a dream come true if I could get any silverware with them.”
