HUNSLET coach Dean Muir believes his side are heading in the right direction – sometimes literally – as he sets sights on games against Huddersfield and Barrow.
Dual-registration partners the Giants visit the South Leeds Stadium in round three of the Challenge Cup on Sunday.
Then seven days after tackling Super League opposition, Hunslet head to Barrow for their first second-tier match since 2015.
The West Yorkshire club were relegated alongside Doncaster that year, and Muir knows survival is the first priority for his new-look team.
But the former Keighley assistant coach, who led Hunslet to promotion from League One in his first season at the helm, is confident that can be achieved.
He was encouraged by the extra attacking options on show in the 50-10 win at Lock Lane in round two of the Challenge Cup, and watched his players in an opposed training session against another National Conference League side, Hunslet ARLFC, last week.
There was a similar session with second-tier rivals Sheffield in addition, and Muir explained: “It gave us the chance to look at and work on specific areas of our game as we fine-tune and really ramp things up.
“The Lock Lane tie was a good first work-out for us, and I was pleased with some of the stuff we did.
“The lads showed that they understand the principles of how we want to play, both in attack and defence, and once we sort that, we can work on the finer details.”
In the halves, Muir played new signing Lachlan Hanneghan, the Australian recruited from Whitehaven, alongside Matty Beharrell, who was a key cog in last year’s line-up.
“The pair of them controlled things pretty well, and created some really good opportunities on both sides of the field,” he noted.
“Last year we were quite left-side heavy, but we looked dangerous down the right, which we have been working on.”
