Ryan Hinchcliffe insists Huddersfield’s credibility is at stake during the final two games of the season.
The Giants’ top four hopes are gone and they put in a poor display as they were comprehensively defeated by Salford Red Devils last week.
Hinchcliffe, who has had a super year following a move to loose-forward, is adamant there is still plenty to play for ahead of their clash with St Helens.
“We haven’t won anything but we’ve done a fair bit for our group and we need to protect that now and make sure we don’t lose any credibility and we don’t switch off,” he said.
“They (St Helens) are going to be hungry, aren’t they? I think for us this week, it’s about us. For a lot of us, Salford was a bad day out and we need to make sure we turn up with the right attitude because that’s what we missed on the weekend. To beat St Helens we’ll have to be a lot better otherwise it’ll be a tough day again.”
Although the Australian admitted he was disappointed the Giants couldn’t push on and reach the top four, he is of the belief that 2017 will go down as a successful year.
“It’s a step forward without a doubt,” he said.
“We had to get through a lot of hurdles early on with some injuries; we only won two of our first 11 games. But we’ve had a good second half of the year and built some team spirit through that time – now it’s about protecting that and making sure we have a strong finish going into next year.
“There are a few games we’ve lost by two points, we’ve had three draws, so there’s lots of what if’s but at the end of the day we weren’t good enough to get into finals contention. But making the top eight was a goal for us; we had aspirations of making the top four but we’ve got to keep driving up the standards of our group because the weekend was disappointing for us.
“We’ve had to fight pretty hard to get ourselves into that top eight and it’s certainly an improvement from the year before. It’s a step in the right direction for us; we’ve competed fairly hard this year and I’ve been happier with this year than last year.”