Lee Radford admits he underestimated how long it would take to get Castleford Tigers playing his way.
The ex-Hull FC coach took charge ahead of this season but lost five of his opening six Super League games.
A two-game winning run suggested things were heading on the right track, before the work still ahead was highlighted by a poor Challenge Cup quarter-final exit at Hull KR on Friday.
“I probably underestimated how long it would take,” said Radford.
“They’ve been under the same systems and coach for a long time, and I probably underestimated how long it would take some blokes to adapt and get some buy-in.
“It’s still a work in progress and we’re nowhere near where we want to be. We want to improve in a lot of areas.
“Getting blokes to do things that they haven’t done for a long time or never done before will naturally take some time.”
That has also been shown in the fortunes of his Castleford predecessor, Daryl Powell, at Warrington, and Radford sees similar signs at Huddersfield and what he calls their “twelve-month transition” under Ian Watson.
“I think it makes it easier when you see results on the back end of what you’re doing,” added Radford.
“That definitely gives you more buy-in and puts more substance in the changes you want to make.”
Tigers fullback Niall Evalds concurs that the process took longer than expected but believes the team are getting things right now.
“It probably shocked us a little bit, the early form, but looking back it was probably to be expected as we had a lot of change,” said Evalds.
“I think it was finding how the players that we’ve got wanted to play and how it suited them as individuals and getting it together as a group.
“It’s just about allowing ourselves with our defence to get in good positions to attack. As long as our defence is good, we think we’ll score points.”
Radford pointed to “mindset and attitude” as the biggest reasons for their Cup disappointment as the Tigers look to bounce back at Wakefield Trinity on Thursday night.
“You turn up with an attitude that you want to stick your head in tight, you want to kick chase hard, you want to get out the ruck as quick as you can to get forward again, and when you get that right for most of the game you come out on top,” he said.
“It’s a quick turnaround and that can be a good thing. There’s so many areas we need to improve on after this. We will try and find some answers as to why and get it right for Thursday.”
Radford is concerned for Jordan Turner after the centre came off injured at Hull KR with an injury to the same shoulder that had required surgery in pre-season.
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