Club Statement: Academy

This news comes following a lengthy application process which included a 2,000-page document that was submitted by the Club.

The early feedback given as to the reasons that Castleford Tigers has not been awarded an Elite Academy Licence is due to a large number of clubs in a small geographical location, and that since 2014 the Club has been bottom of the league for producing First Team players. However, the process has not taken into account the appearances of our long-standing home-grown Academy talent such as Michael Shenton, Adam Milner, Nathan Massey, Oliver Holmes, James Clare, Greg Eden and Liam Watts, just to name some of the players currently within the Castleford First Team setup.

The application process also did also not consider that we have 70+ young players on our current Scholarship & Academy programmes, alongside the Tigers Talent Pathway which continues to grow from strength to strength and enables a route for players from Under 12’s onwards.

Throughout the last Academy process, the Club has invested millions of pounds into the Club’s youth systems and structures.

As a result of this, we are determined to develop a hybrid system alongside our current College of Rugby League and Elite Player Pathways, details of this will be announced in due course.