Huddersfield Giants head coach update as Ralph Rimmer details search latest

Huddersfield Giants will work through the applicants for the head coach role this weekend as the club moves closer to finding Luke Robinson’s successor.

The Giants invited candidates to apply for the role in the aftermath of Robinson’s exit last month, with the club’s Director for Change, Ralph Rimmer, echoing Andy Kelly’s comments that there had been a healthy number of applications received.

They will be reviewed in the coming days before a shortlist is drawn up.

“We have quite a lot of applicants,” Rimmer told Love Rugby League. “We were hopeful that we would and clearly, I did some content which was designed to describe what the future will look like at the Giants for everybody moving forward and certainly for the next head coach. I want people to understand it’s going to be a place that people are going to want to be at. That’s the really critical part.

“Responses have been great so far. I haven’t seen them yet, we’ll probably spend Easter weekend sifting through them as well as playing a game.”

Explaining what the club wants in the successful candidate, Rimmer insisted investment into the club’s vision for the future was critical, as changes to the culture begin to take shape.

“I think this is a critical appointment that fits into everything else we’re doing at the club. Ideally, we’d appoint tomorrow, but all I know is Andy says we’ve got a lot of applicants.

“I want the person to get it, if that makes sense. I want them to understand what it is we’re trying to do. We’re doing a big piece on culture in the club as well. That person has to fit into that and drive it with us. From the start of this year, we’ve picked the club up, it doesn’t look like it but behind the scenes, we’ve picked it up from the bootstraps and changed it dramatically from where it was. It’s a build on a build and that person has got to want to be a part of that and make it a great place to be. So yeah, ideally tomorrow, but we’ve got to find the right person.”

Rimmer said in an interview with the club’s official channels that the club wanted a coach that would take them through to 2030, which would mean staying with the club for over three years. Historically, overseas coaches do not last that long, with just one of the last 14 overseas coaches of the last 10 years lasting that long in former Warrington boss Steve Price.

That said, that does not mean the Giants won’t go down that route.

“It’s a decent stat and completely believable,” Rimmer said. “I don’t know the answer to that. Ideally we all want a person to help deliver our vision and that’s why I say 2030. But we know the path of coaching never runs straight too. That’s an ideal picture I painted, whether we get there remains to be seen. But I want stability, somebody with dynamism and excitement and to buy into what we’re doing. I’m pretty optimistic.”