Jim Lenihan’s key Huddersfield Giants priorities following long-term appointment

Huddersfield Giants have appointed Jim Lenihan as their new head coach, with the Gold Coast Titans assistant penning a long-term deal with the West Yorkshire outfit. 

His appointment is part of a much wider rebuild at the Giants, who are setting their sights on lofty ambitions further down the line.

In some ways, that does make this a harder job than it first appears, even with Huddersfield currently sat bottom of the Super League table after the opening 10 rounds, but that does throw up some interesting questions both in the short-term and for the future.

Here’s our take on Lenihan’s in-tray upon his arrival at the Accu.

Confidence

There is always some level of bounce when a new coach is appointed, just look at what happened when Liam Finn took over as head coach for example, but Lenihan will just need to inject a fresh level of confidence into this Huddersfield squad.

Super League is an uncompromising competition, and small blips of form can quickly spiral into full-blown crises, and that’s potentially what’s happened at the Giants this season. Yes, injuries have played a massive part in their season so far, but they just seem devoid of any real confidence at the moment, and that quickly needs to change.

Injecting confidence into a team can be done in numerous ways, be it a new attacking style focused on playing wide and fast or building a game plan that makes you tough to beat and picking up gritty wins, but either way, Lenihan needs to find a way to bring back a level of belief into this side once more.

This should be the immediate priority upon his arrival.

Recruitment and retention

Looking a little bit further down the line, recruitment and retention should also be a major priority for the new coach, with this cycle potentially having the ability to make or break their rebuild.

While the main reason for it has been injuries, Huddersfield’s recruitment, and especially overseas recruitment, has not panned out the way they would have wanted in the past few years. That simply needs to change.

Lenihan will want to put his stamp on the club, especially with the club detailing their hope his appointment will eventually lead them to a Super League Grand Final or a Challenge Cup Final, and bringing in a few big hitters could be just the ticket. It cannot be buying players for the sake of it, though, it needs to be measured, well thought out and with a wider plan in place.

Retentions will also be a key thing to get right for the incoming boss. Huddersfield have a number of players off-contract at the end of this season, several are quota players too, so they need to again make sure the players in their squad are part of the long-term planning and will get them to where they want to go.

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Managing expectations

This could very easily sound like a LinkedIn-esque section, but Lenihan cannot allow himself or the club to get too carried away and expect instant change.

Huddersfield have made no secret that this appointment is aimed at delivering long-term success, but that will not happen overnight. It might not happen for a few years.

But that’s ok, and should be allowed to be ok. This appointment is a project one, of a similar ilk to Ryan Carr at Castleford Tigers it must be said, and that project should be allowed to happen organically and gradually.

It has serious potential, but everyone involved should be patient.

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