Yesterday, I was working over near Castleford/Normanton, I got speaking to a guy (I didn't catch his name) about Rugby League and ultimately Castleford. It turns out this bloke is an academy coach at your club.

The topic of the conversation quickly turned to Ian Millward, and he was far from complementary. He thought Millward treated your first team squad like kids, keeping unnecessary tabs on their eating and drinking habits - basically 24/7 surveillance.

I asked him for specifics. Apparently Millward like to leave no stone unturned in his preparations and will seek the latest technology and expertise to help player performance, (personally I see this as a good thing, although this guy pulled a face as if to say 'why would we need that?'). This involves some sort of GPS system to monitor player effort, heartrate etc at training and in matches. Expert nutritional advice. Another is to monitor player hydration levels before training to check they are at their potential. He's also introduced some sort of quota on the amount the players drink (whilst not banning them from drinking at all). This guy dismissed everything, he couldn't see any positives whatsoever. I was quite shocked to be honest.

The players (and academy staff it seems), see this as disrespectful and the coach keeping tabs on them. I however, see it as a coach who doesn't have a lot of money at his disposal, who is trying to get the edge on his competitors in another way.

The players see it all as a way in which Millward can give them a rollocking for not pulling their weight / drinking. Looking at it from a coaches point of view, as a way of flagging up problems, maybe minor injuries, maybe dietry issues, sleeping issues or drinking too much for them to perform to their potential.


The point I'm trying to make is that the attitudes at Castleford (except for the coach), seem very old fashioned. The players like a beer, the academy coaches don't like new technology/expert advice, and Millward get's no support from board level (hence why Rangi is back playing already).

You've got a good coach, but attitudes have to change from the top down, or the club will be left behind.

Has anyone heard similar?

Heard similar about training and eating habits. I think a lot of his ideas though are now common practice in SL especially the bigger clubs. So I think what he is doing is right. You are always going to get people that do not like change and frown upon it. I think that is the issue that has faced Millward this season. Its ok having all these brilliant with regards to training, diet, technology but you also need the backing of the staff to make it happen.

Exactly. He simply doesn't have the backing it seems.

I have posted several times here and elsewhere that Basil knows his game and why and the selections and some of the petulant 'stars' we have had in our squad this year have not liked change and more rigorous commitments being requested from them.

It is easy to blame Basil and the will of many always outweighs the will of one - But if you always do what you have always done......

I am glad there is at least a small push back on the players not just Basil. On top of that, he is right to select people who commit and do their bit with more enthusiasm and not select those who display their contempt - which also is the source of a lot of criticism for pickign some and not others.

Everyone in the club needs to commit to modernisation and chnage and thankfully the bean counters and cheque writers seem to be allowing him the chance to evolve our methods and not backing the players petulance and pathetic sulky protests.

I can see an element of truth in this and not a coincidence that the majority of the hell-raising / beer drinking brigade are either already at Hull or will be joining them next season.

We have introduced GPS to monitor player performance levels so that we can see when people are starting to flag on the pitch. It's also used as a prevention measure in terms of injuries and a lot of teams use it.

I just think a lot of players were in their comfort zone and saw the Head Coach as a pal rather than the boss.

Thanks for that, I had no idea why GPS was used

That was just one example of the new things he's introduced. I was mainly trying to highlight the lack of support he got from his players, academy coaches and ultimately board level.

Seems he's fighting a losing battle against old-fashioned attitudes. Attitudes that see these new features as a negative and invading their privacy, rather than to help them achieve their peak performance level.

Hopefully once he get's more of his own players in, things will start to change.