Hetherington leads plaudits for Castleford’s success and ‘entertaining brand of rugby’
LEEDS RHINOS’ chief executive Gary Hetherington believes Castleford Tigers topping Super League so emphatically after the regular season is “one of the best achievements in the competition’s history” and needs far more acknowledgement.
The West Yorkshire club completed the first stage of the campaign 10 points clear of nearest opponents Leeds and could claim the League Leaders’ Shield within just two rounds of the forthcoming Super 8s.
It is the first time in Castleford’s 91-year history they have finished top, but, with the actual champions not decided until October’s Grand Final, some feel the feat has not warranted the attention it actually deserves.
“We should all be acknowledging what a tremendous achievement this is from Castleford,” Hetherington told The Yorkshire Post.
“We’ve seen the most competitive Super League season to date and witnessed just how difficult it is for teams to win consecutive games or put a string of wins together in 23 rounds.
“Yet Castleford have just defied that and gone way out in front.
“They’ve also done so with a superb, very entertaining brand of rugby and that really should be acknowledged.
“It’s an outstanding achievement by Castleford and, of course, one would assume they’d now go on and collect the League Leaders’ Shield.
“They should get all the credit, particularly Daryl Powell and his coaching staff.
“It is one of the best achievements of the Super League era as not only are Castleford likely to win it by such a big margin, but they’ve done it in such style as well. It’s a very unique and impressive feat.”
It has reopened the debate about the merit of the League Leaders’ Shield, which, in some quarters, is almost seen as inconsequential compared to the Grand Final and Challenge Cup.
Indeed, ever since it was introduced in 2003 it has struggled to earn gravitas, but Hetherington feels it does deserve more importance.
His Leeds side won it in 2004, 2009 and 2015 and he added: “I think the League Leaders’ Shield in many ways is the most difficult trophy to win and it should certainly have more acclaim.
“Now, of course, at the outset when the play-offs were brought in (in 1998), it was deliberately underplayed as we wanted to promote the play-offs and indeed the Grand Final.
“But now they are firmly established I think there needs to be more recognition for the League Leaders.
“That has been addressed somewhat in that the prize money is now £100,000, which is the same as the Challenge Cup.
“Furthermore, players now get medals for it, too. That was brought in two years ago and we’d been campaigning for it as for a player playing all season it needs to be recognised just like when a player gets a Grand Final ring or Challenge Cup medal.
“But it does need more public acclaim, more acclaim from the media and more recognition from the media about how good an achievement this is.
“One of the disappointments is Castleford are not receiving as much credit as they ought to be.”
Meanwhile, Tigers secondrow Kevin Larroyer could face a three-game ban after being charged with ‘other contrary behaviour’ against Catalans Dragons’ Vincent Duport.