JIM LENIHAN was pleased to see Huddersfield Giants put Fenton Rogers’ red card behind them to bring the curtain down on 32 years at the Accu Stadium with a 48-16 thrashing of Castleford Tigers.
Huddersfield had conceded cheaply at the beginning of the second half, but kept their composure to ultimately blow the Tigers away, ensuring they leapfrogged above their opponents to finish in twelfth place, a standing that had seemed a dream for much of the campaign.
A run of six wins from their final eight matches has typified the turnaround Lenihan has overseen at the club, who will begin a new chapter at Dewsbury’s FLAIR Stadium in 2027.
“It was very good,” the head coach enthused. “I’m really happy with the guys after going down to twelve.
“For us to fight through that and come out of half-time – we let in a really easy soft try, which was a bit concerning and maybe a bit of a precursor to what might have come, but to fight through that and do really well (was pleasing).
“I’m very proud of the guys, very proud of their effort.
“It was really important for us to put in a physical, proud effort for the last game at home and in front of that crowd.”
Such effort is the cornerstone of what Lenihan is attempting to build at the Giants, but the head coach was under no illusions that his team have ultimately achieved nothing this year.
He explained: “We’ve always wanted to change the way that we play football to be more like a ‘big boy’ footy team.
“The big boy teams are fairly simple, but there’s a lot of effort that goes into what they do, and they’ve got a lot of strong, hard men who do that kind of football.
“If we’re consistently trying to look for shortcuts for wins or trying to shift it early and play trick shots to try and win games, that’s not consistent enough.
“We needed to work harder, we needed to move faster.
“Let’s not be mistaken, we’ve not achieved anything. We’ve come third last but we’re still at the bottom, and we’re a long way from achieving anything important.
“It’s really important that, as much of what we’ve done in the last eight weeks has been a really positive step forward for us as a club, we’ve got so much more to do.
“It means nothing if we come out next year and flounder away again.
“We understand more about how we want to play football now, and I’ve got an idea of what makes our team tick and makes it work, but I’m really happy for the guys.
“They are the ones who are doing it on the football field, putting in the effort and putting pride back into our jersey. That’s really important.”