A FRISSON of excitement still ripples through the Castleford Tigers players as they head for the showers after their final training session ahead of today’s pivotal match of their season so far.

Such is the spring in their step it is hard to believe this is a club languishing at the foot of the Tetley’s Super League table without a point to their name, a side that has lost 10 successive games and faces the prospect of relegation for the first time.

What is even more unbelievable is that the reason for Castleford’s euphoria is Ellery Hanley, a man regarded as the greatest rugby league player of all time.

In just three days since his appointment as “coaching consultant”, the 43-year-old has managed to transform the outlook of the Yorkshire club, whose own homespun image could not be more removed from that of the former Wigan, Leeds and Great Britain captain.

Hanley insists he was “honoured and flattered” that Castleford approached him to ascertain his interest in filling the void left by the departure of Graham Steadman, who paid the ultimate price last month. A day later Hanley and Gary Mercer, promoted from assistant to head coach, were appointed until the end of the season.

“The game has been very good to me, it’s given me everything in life, a great standard of living, and I feel it’s important I put something back into the game,” says Hanley, who has been called many things throughout his career, but never before a philanthropist. “One of the things that’s great about Castleford is the work ethic and the honesty of the players. There are no show-offs, no big egos, everyone respects each other.”

Hanley’s first big test comes this afternoon with a home match against Salford City Reds, the team immediately above his side in the table. A relegation fight is a new concept for a man who won four Challenge Cup winner’s medals and three league titles with Wigan and who coached Great Britain to a rare Test victory over Australia in 1994.

“The key thing for me was Gary Mercer, I have enormous respect for him,” he says. “I played with Gary at Leeds and against him for Wigan. His enthusiasm, desire and commitment are unbelievable.”

Both on the field and off it, Hanley brought to the game a steely determination which is often described as intensity, a word which does not sit comfortably with him.

“I would use a completely different phrase: I was a full-time professional in mind and body. That’s different from being intense,” he says. “If you are too intense you are not going to play good football, you will not stay in control when you have to stay in control, whether you are winning or losing.

“I see my role here as being about changing the culture of the players’ minds and getting them to understand what winning is all about. You have to be switched on and grasp that winning begins at the start of the week.”

After just half a week under his spell, it remains to be seen whether Hanley’s magic will be enough to save the endangered Tigers today.