HUDDERSFIELD GIANTS have been fairly underwhelming so far in Super League 2023.
Sitting third bottom of the Super League table and out of the Challenge Cup at the first time of asking, the Giants have been one of the most disappointing sides in the top flight.
Along with those abject performances, fans have called into question the leadership of head coach Ian Watson, but he is not shirking from his responsibility.
Asked whether he felt he could bring success to the John Smith’s Stadium, Watson replied: “I know I will and I know the group will.
“It’s a good group and it is going in the right direction and the club will be in a better position for everything we’ve done so far – I’ve got 100% confidence in that.”
About having talks with the board about his potential future at Huddersfield, Watson went on: “I’ve not really had those discussions, but I know the board were fully behind the idea of what we wanted to build.
“I was pretty clear when I first came in that it’s not about miracles. If anything, last year, we probably jumped a year or two forward in terms of the level of expectation we had for the group.
“The first year we wanted to learn what the group was about and what we needed to improve on. We weren’t brought in because there were no issues – we were brought in because there was an issue.
“The second year is trying to fix it up and improve on that and I think we did that in abundance, probably too well because the level of expectation has gone through the roof.
“We’ve probably got caught up in that as coaches, as players and as a club. When you look at the facts of it, we’ve had one good year in about eight years.
Watson was then asked if he was feeling extra pressure following the poor start to the season: “I can’t say no…but in some ways, no.
“We spoke about the level of expectation earlier on in the season and I said it’s about what we do this year and it comes from hard work – I’ve never changed my stance on that.
“Do we want to compete to win a competition? Of course we do and every team is the same.
“But you look at how many teams have actually won the competition over the years. Look at a team like Warrington who spend massively but have never won a Grand Final.
“It’s a difficult thing to do and you need to build a team. There’s pressure everywhere you look and sport is built on pressure, whether you’re sat at the bottom end of the table or at the top.
“The one thing you can do is embrace it and accept it as a challenge rather than let it drag you down.”
