Huddersfield’s players and coaches are crediting one another for the Giants’ strong start to the season.
After a near calamitous 2019, the Giants’ coaching staff promised to change things to turn around the club’s fortunes.
In return, the players promised to buy into the new regime in order to climb up the table.
So far, it has had the desired effect. Victory over Hull Kingston Rovers on Friday saw the Giants notch a third straight win to start the season, the first time they have done so since they won the League Leaders’ Shield in 2013.
It’s a fact not lost on hooker Adam O’Brien, who credited the coaching staff for their efforts in the off-season.
“Everyone thinks training is just about running and getting fit and strong,” he said.
“But we’ve had a programme set from the strength and conditioning side where, as players, we think there’s a reason behind everything.
“It’s not just running for the sake of it, it’s running for a particular reason, the middles are running for a certain reason and the backs another. I think because there’s been a purpose to everything, the boys have bought into it because they can see it is working and are getting something out of it.
“Pre-season went really well and now it is coming off on the field. We’re putting things together and getting a result, which is really good. We’ve all bought into it and had a good start.”
Giants coach Simon Woolford believes a change in attitude of his playing group has been the key to their good start, which has seen their odds to win the Grand Final fall from 66/1 at the start of the season to 28/1 now, according to the competition sponsor Betfred.
“The guys are a lot more committed and resilient this year,” said Woolford.
“We changed a few things in the pre-season and it seems to have worked, but let’s not hide from the fact that their attitude is the reason we’re three from three, the conditions have been poor and we haven’t played our best at times, but when we’ve had to roll our sleeves up and defend our line we’ve been able to do that.
“We’ve had 26 points scored against us in three games. It’s a far cry from where we were at the same time last year. We think we’ve got a fair bit of resilience in our defence at the moment.”
On the injury front, Woolford reported positive news on both James Gavet and Darnell McIntosh, who both went off in the victory over Hull KR. Gavet was stretchered off, but Woolford confirmed it was just precautionary, while McIntosh has minor medial ligament damage but could play against Wigan this week.