Alex Mellor recognises importance of Magic Weekend for improving Castleford Tigers
Alex Mellor has talked up the importance of Sunday's Elland Road date with Huddersfield Giants as Castleford Tigers look to draw a line under their recent struggles.
The Tigers have endured another challenging season, albeit with more positives than 2023 when they flirted with relegation.
The Magic Weekend game against Huddersfield offers Castleford the chance to leapfrog their West Yorkshire rivals into ninth place, a finish boss Craig Lingard is desperate to secure in his first campaign as head coach.
"We're all on the same wavelength about that," said Mellor.
"Before the season starts, nobody sets out to finish ninth. We've just had to change our outlook on it and go week by week. Now with Huddersfield in sight and a big game coming up at the weekend, that's a real focus of ours.
"It's important for confidence and to give the fans a little bit of belief that we really are building something. It would give us a bit of a springboard into next year – the higher you finish up the league, the brighter your start to pre-season is.
"In terms of winning things and getting to the play-offs it's not important – but it would give us the momentum and confidence that we can achieve something in the future."
Castleford have shown green shoots of progress under Lingard, who was tasked with revitalising an ageing squad on a modest budget.
Although the Tigers remain in the bottom half of Super League, this season has been a world away from the struggles of 2023 when the club limped to an 11th-place finish.
"The fans had a lot of questions and sometimes the players had a lot of questions last year if I'm being honest," added Mellor.
"It was a bit of a write-off and then you throw the threat of relegation and losing your job into that, it adds a lot of stress.
"The pressure of relegation isn't there which helps as a player but there's certainly been an improvement and hopefully we're on that linear path where we're just getting better and better each year.
"Don't get me wrong, the path is a bit bumpy week in, week out but it feels like we are starting to improve in general and picking up our standards.
"I feel like this year everybody is on the same page and we're getting a lot of transparency and honesty from above.
"The club is on the right path and everybody has the same goal. Nobody feels like they're being let down. The next couple of years at Cas could be really exciting."
Castleford have one hurdle to clear before they can start planning for a future in Super League with confidence.
The Tigers were on the borderline when IMG announced its indicative grades last year and must wait until late October for a final decision on whether they will retain their top-flight status.
"We've been reassured that we will be in Super League," said Mellor.
"They've taken all the necessary steps to get the points. It's a weird one as a player because when it's relegation you know the weight is on your shoulders and if you lose games you're not going to stay up, but when it's to do with points it's a little bit harder to predict whether you're going to be there.
"It's a weird situation but we're all pretty confident we're going to be in Super League."