A new contract for players was introduced throughout the game, whereby a player could sign for any club he wished, for whatever period of time. A transfer fee still had to be agreed, either between the clubs or by an independent tribunal

Malcolm Reilly had accepted the Great Britain coaching role so his assistant Dave Sampson took over at the season start with John Kear and Mick Morgan running the Alliance. Kevin Ward was given permission to play for Manly in the Australian Grand Final, where he was rated top forward in their win. He would have also played for them in the first World Club Challenge at Wigan but sustained a leg injury.

In shades of the 1935 cup winning team, the club went to France to promote the game over there, which had been in decline. In a champions versus cup winners challenge, Castleford beat Halifax 26–6 to win the one off trophy.

Warrington arrived at Wheldon Road in September and found they had forgotten their kit. They were loaned a reserve club kit but didn’t return the favour as they won the game 40-30.

Keeping up last season's good work, Castleford again went through to the Yorkshire Cup final, for the fifth time in seven years. For a change, Bradford were opponents and the game ended 12–12. The replay was two weeks later and Bradford were victorious 11–2, winning a match which had a half-time brawl, 4 players in the sin bin and 12 players ordered to appear before the RL Management Committee charged with bringing the game into disrepute. The result was £100 fines for John Joyner, David Plange, Gary Hyde and Kevin Ward plus the same for Bradford players Paul Harkin and Brendan Hill. This was then followed up with the same fines for Keith England and Kenny Hill, plus Bradford's Kelvin Skerrett, David Hobbs and Wayne Heron. Even later, Dean Sampson became the 14th player fined, with £50 imposed. Castleford had in fact also been involved in a brawl in a league game with Hull a short time before. Only days after the Bradford match decisions, another inquiry was started for the Hull game that resulted in eight Castleford players and seven Hull players being fined £50 each. It has to be said though that the season was littered with brawls, as many clubs had involvement and suffered fines. Perhaps the authorities perceived a problem and focused efforts to stop it growing.

The team was unable to shake off inconsistency throughout the season, the best sequence being three wins and a draw in October and the worst being three defeats in a row in March. Castleford did though set a division one (since 1973) record with the highest score when they beat Swinton 76–16. At the time, it was also their highest score against a professional team.

The season ended with P26, W13, D0, L13 to finish 7th from 14 in a league reduced from 16 last season. 35 matches were played in total using 30 players. Hat tricks were scored by John Fifita, Kevin Beardmore and David Plange. The average attendance fell by 238 to 4520. Although seemingly a fair return, the club had fallen slightly down the table and coach Dave Sampson was sacked at the season end. Chairman David Poulter had possibly hinted at this when in a programme interview in April he declared the season had been a disappointing one in respect of performances and some players had not given their best. The club should have been top 4 material but had been looking over its shoulder towards the bottom end of the table. The poor form was brought to a head the following week when a visit to bottom club Swinton led to a humiliating 14-45 defeat.

During the season John Joyner set a new club appearance record.

Kevin Anderson, Paul Norton and Terry Richardson were struck off the register after not playing for a number of years.

On the recognition side, John Joyner captained Yorkshire against Papua New Guinea and Kenny Hill captained Yorkshire Colts. Kenny Hill and Shaun Irwin both captained Great Britain Colts in games against France.

The Alliance side finished a creditable fourth in the first division but made little impression on the cups. Wayne Thornton was voted Player of the Season. The Colts finished third in their first division but also failed in the cups.

The Beardmore twins had a benefit during the season in recognition of their 10 years at the club. One of the events was a wine tasting evening in the Lifeline Bar, an event that would have been unthinkable for rugby players only a few years previously. They were eventually presented with a record cheque for £30,000.

Representatives

Giles Boothroyd and Kenny Hill played for Yorkshire Colts
Grant Anderson, Kenny Hill and Shaun Irwin played for Great Britain Colts
Kenny Hill, Shaun Irwin, Gary Lord, and Dean Sampson played for Great Britain under 21s
Kevin Beardmore, John Joyner (plus 1 non playing sub selection), Tony Marchant and Kevin Ward played for Yorkshire.
Kevin Beardmore, David Plange and Kevin Ward played for Great Britain
Kevin Beardmore and Kevin Ward were selected for Great Britain tour of Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand. In addition, John Joyner was later called into the tour as a replacement

Debut this season after joining the club

Brian Juliff forward Halifax £7000 on loan before permanent

Other debuts

Giles Boothroyd wing Lock Lane
Dean Sampson prop Castleford Colts
Kenny Hill sub forward Castleford Colts
Paul Crabtree sub forward Castleford Colts

Last career game played this season and next move

Alan Shillito prop York £12500
Dean Mountain prop Ryedale York plus £20,000 for St John Ellis season 1989/90
Gary Lord full-back Leeds £20,000 season 1988/89
Keith Jones second row Doncaster £4000 1988/89
Brian Juliff forward Rochdale £1000 1989/90
Gary Hyde centre Oldham £15,000 1988/89
John Kear wing Bramley as team manager 1989/90
Steve Gill wing

Overseas Short term Contract players

Michael Beattie centre St George Australia
John Fifita second row St George Australia
Bob Lindner loose forward Parramatta Australia second stint after first stint 1986/87 as Manly player