The hope
Huddersfield head coach Luke Robinson was in charge of his first full pre-season at the Giants after being appointed on an interim and then permanent basis in 2024.
New signings included Super League veterans George King and Liam Sutcliffe whilst the West Yorkshire club had secured three coups in Tom Burgess, Jacob Gagai and Taane Milne from South Sydney Rabbitohs.
Zac Woolford, son of former Huddersfield coach Simon, also made the move from Canberra Raiders. There was also hope that a talented spine of George Flanagan, Adam Clune and Tui Lolohea could work their magic.
The reality
It didn’t just rain for Huddersfield in 2025, it poured with quite dramatic effect.
The scene of how the campaign would unfold was set in pre-season when new signing King dislocated and broke his ankle with no one around him. Spending five months out on the sidelines, King never really got going after being a vital cog in Hull KR’s forward wheel for so many years.
Clune made just six appearances, Sutcliffe was limited to five and new signing Niall Evalds was injured in both the games he played. Lolohea, Adam Swift and Sam Hewitt were among the other players to miss significant portions of the season.
To miss so many influential players for such a large proportion of time would hurt any side, but the Giants stuttered throughout, winning just seven games – including four of their last eight in a late rally.
Luke Robinson cut a visibly frustrated figure for the vast majority of the campaign, but his job never seemed under threat, despite winning just once in 15 league games to start the season.
Best players
There can really only be one that stands out here and that is George Flanagan. The maverick fullback registered 128 points for the Giants – ten tries and 44 goals – and ended up playing 25 games in a breakout season for the 20-year-old.
Able to create something out of nothing, Flanagan often proved to be the shining light in an otherwise dull campaign for Huddersfield.
Another notable mention should go to the veteran Leroy Cudjoe, who captained the Giants for 26 games and still very much looked the part in any position.
In quotes
“The players have been working really, really hard. I’m really chuffed for them as there’s been many games this year where we’ve been the better side. Hopefully it’s a springboard into more wins.” – Luke Robinson finally gets his first win of the 2025 Super League campaign after the tenth time of asking with a 12-10 triumph over Hull FC at the Magic Weekend.
“The number of injuries we’ve had, I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. A lot of the injuries we looked at and said there’s not much we could do and it’s pure luck. There are others that we’ve looked at and thought we can definitely change the way we do things, what we train on and how we train on it. There will be adjustments and hopefully we’ll be better for it in the long run.” – Luke Robinson vows to change things around off the field after numerous stars suffer injuries in training and in games.
“I won’t say it too loud but my wife is loving it here. She has made friends with mums at the school and she is wondering whether or not we will actually go back to Australia. I said ‘let’s give it a couple of years and then we will see’. It’s just great that she is in that mind space. We are really enjoying it here.” Tom Burgess on loving life at Huddersfield despite the club’s bad form.
In numbers
347 the points Huddersfield scored in 27 games – an average of just under 13 points per game.
408 Huddersfield appearances for Leroy Cudjoe as the 37-year-old hung up his boots.
51 offloads made by Taane Milne put him top of the charts.
Highlight
Somehow Huddersfield seemed to have play-off hunting Hull FC’s number in 2025. A 12-10 win over Hull FC at Magic Weekend saw the Giants crack their ten-match losing run on the biggest stage, whilst Luke Robinson’s men would beat the Black and Whites away in Round 19, 30-14.
With such a damaging injury crisis, Robinson was forced to turn to his youngsters – and Archie Sykes, Jacob Algar, Marshall Land, Lewis Jagger all made their debuts during the horrendous run of injuries and results.
Lowlight
A run of straight nine league defeats at the start of the season was pretty dismal, one of which included a 23-10 loss to Salford Red Devils, whose financial problems had started to mount.
Big 50-4 and 52-4 losses to Hull KR and St Helens respectively didn’t exactly do much to restore respectability either as Huddersfield’s average home crowds at the Accu Stadium fell to just over 4,000.