NEW Huddersfield coach Jim Lenihan wants to help the Giants become a side who can compete with the likes of St Helens at the top end of the table – after revealing how chats with Justin Holbrook added fuel to his interest in coaching in Super League.
Lenihan worked with Holbrook, now in charge of Newcastle Knights, at Gold Coast Titans after his fellow Australian guided Saints to the first of their four successive title between 2019 and 2022.
The last of those Grand Final wins was in the last year Huddersfield made the play-offs, and he takes up a role he has long been interested in with the team languishing in the lower reaches.
Now Lenihan, who played for the Giants in 1999 and applied for the coaching job in late 2024, when it was given to Luke Robinson, who he now succeeds, is ready to transform fortunes.
The 53-year-old took Burleigh Bears to two Queensland Cup titles, and has left that competition’s Brisbane Tigers to become Huddersfield’s fifth team chief in ten years.
“As much as it’s great to have been involved in the NRL and the Queensland Cup, to be coach of a team in Super League is something I have wanted for a while,” he explained to BBC Radio Leeds.
“Talking with Justin Holbrook, who had some success at St Helens, lit a bit of a fire in me, I enjoyed my time playing at Huddersfield and I applied for the job a year-and-a-half ago.
“Now I’ve got it and I just want to improve this club, create an identity and a team who reflect the town, honest and hardworking, and give the people something to be proud of.”
Having arrived just days before Friday’s derby at Leeds, Lenihan will watch on as existing staff members Liam Finn and Leroy Cudjoe lead operations at AMT Headingley.
Finn and Cudjoe will have important parts to play going forward, with Lenihan explaining: “They stay in place short-term and I see no reason why it won’t be long-term.”