Castleford Tigers set out plan to improve grading position

​The switch to the grading system deciding which teams will be able to play in the top flight was approved earlier this season, but has caused plenty of consternation following the publishing of the guide scores last week.

Cas were placed in 13th – which if it was the same next year would mean they would be relegated – but believe they were given the wrong score and should actually have been in 11th.

A club statement read: "The scores given are indicative at this moment in time and have no bearing on our 2024 Super League season.

"We have been monitoring our scores for the last year and had an accurate view of what our points were, we expected to receive a score of around 12.6 to 12.95.

"We received the grading score of 12.66 and 11th place. Due to an RFL error, an additional 0.5 points were incorrectly added to our score and our score therefore looked correct and what we expected it to be.

"We requested the detail behind the score, which was not sent through by the RFL. Mark Grattan (managing director) then received a call at 7.30pm the night before the scores were to be announced. This notified him of the RFL error which brought to light our data omission, due to their error masking the scores.

"The RFL corrected their error, they did not correct ours. The RFL told us that they were publishing the grades with us sat in 13th position and we would be able to appeal this once the grades were published. With the correct data included, we currently sit in 11th place with a score of 12.91.”

Cas say their focus is to achieve extra points for the next round of grading, aming to maintain the performance score of 3.09; maintain the fandom score of 4.20; increase the finance score by 0.75 to 3.8; maintain the community score of 1.25; and increase stadium score by 1.35 to 2.67.

"If we manage to achieve all the above it would give the club a grade A score of 15.01 points,” said the Tigers.

“If we can get to 14.25 points by the end of the 2024 season it sets us up really well around mid-table in Super League gradings and gives us the ability to push on to 15 points and a Grade A score by the end of the 2025 season.”