Inside Huddersfield Giants’ head coach appointment after long search

Huddersfield Giants appointed Jim Lenihan as their head coach on Friday, finally bringing an end to their search to appoint Luke Robinson’s successor.

Following Robinson’s departure in March, the Giants have gone through a process which has culminated in them appointing a head coach that got deep into the recruitment process when they ultimately decided to appoint Robinson the last time around.

Lenihan was among their top targets again this time around after a shortlist was built up. However, he wasn’t their first choice for the role initially. That was Daniel Holdsworth, the Cronulla Sharks assistant coach who has, like Lenihan been pursuing head coaching roles in Super League for some time.

Holdsworth emerged as the Giants’ first-choice last week, and the club held extensive talks with him as they looked to secure a deal to bring him to the club.

That, however, did not materialise. Over the weekends talks broke down, with the Australian ultimately deciding not to pursue the position further.

That then resulted in Huddersfield going back to the drawing board, however, having been impressed with Lenihan for several years, the decision was ultimately easy and after talks took place throughout the week, a deal was sorted quickly.

Lenihan should now arrive imminently and will get straight into the project, looking to firstly take the Giants off the bottom of the table, and long-term, bringing an end to the club’s long-term struggles on the field.

Huddersfield have only made the play-offs once since 2016 and have managed just two wins from their opening ten games of the Super League season, leaving them rock bottom of the table.

Their early-season form saw the departure of Robinson, who was their fifth permanent head coach since 2016. Lenihan becomes the sixth, and the Giants are now hoping he is the man who can bring long-term improvement to the club.

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