Castleford's Michael Shenton says repeat of 2017 Super League success will be tough
Thursday 25 January 2018 15:48, UK
Castleford captain Michael Shenton says his side face an even bigger challenge to match their glorious season in 2017.
Although the Tigers lost to Leeds in the Betfred Super League Grand Final, their achievement in claiming their first League Leaders' Shield by 10 clear points illustrated their domination of the competition.
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Shenton says their defeat by the Rhinos, a side they had beaten four times in the regular season, still hurts but there are no plans to change Castleford's adventurous style of play in 2018.
"The scars still hurt now," Shenton said at the official launch of the new season at Huddersfield's John Smith's Stadium. "There is a kind of burning motivation within.
"We had a chance to reflect on it and reflect on the season as a whole and there were some real positives in there. Of course, that one game is the negative but we need to move on quick if we want to kind of redeem ourselves because to get there again is an even bigger challenge.
"We have approached the new season pretty similar. Obviously there are areas we have highlighted where we want to improve and we've worked extremely hard on those bits.
"The way we play mainly is going to stay the same. It makes us a great team to play in and a good team to watch and that's important to us. And it wins games.
"We will probably change the way we play a little bit with Ben Roberts moving to full-back but the core of our team is pretty much the same and I think we'll be competitive. Our expectations are high."
Leeds and St Helens are seen by the sponsors as the main rivals to the Tigers, whose coach Daryl Powell believes the competition is wide open.
Powell said: "You are going to be looking at what Warrington are going to be like with their new coach, I think Wigan are going to come out with renewed vigour, Hull are a great side, St Helens had a great finish last year, are Wakefield going to keep improving?
"You don't know who is going to be the best team. It takes a while for things to come out of the woodwork.
"I was talking really positively about us last year but you didn't really know until we kicked off and we hit the ground running. I think the start is really important with the way the structure is now. I think it is open. The first month is going to be interesting. It should be vibrant this year."
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Castleford will have a new half-back pairing this year with Ben Roberts switching to full-back in place of Zak Hardaker but, like his captain, Powell does not envisage any change to their playing style.
"We're always looking to evolve the way we play, that won't change," he said. "I think we've been evolving since 2014, we've always played a certain way.
"The mix of players last year made it a special concoction. I don't expect us to change too much. We like to play to space and isolate people and, if we can do that again, we'll cause teams a lot of trouble."
