McGillvary urges ‘disgraceful’ Giants to improve fast

Huddersfield winger Jermaine McGillvary has pulled no punches when it comes to assessing the Giants performance this season.

The England international feels that the team has let everyone down, especially the club’s supporters.

“It’s been absolutely shocking,” he told Love Rugby League.

“It’s a disgrace, really, from what we were doing last year, to toss this rubbish up this season.

“The table doesn’t lie and we finished bottom. That’s not good for anyone associated with the Huddersfield Giants.

“But now we’ve got another chance to save our futures, and prove to the fans that we are actually a good team.

“The table doesn’t lie – we’ve been dreadful for 99.9 percent of the season.”

McGillvary also refuses to pinpoint one position or personality for the club’s decline in 2016, and insists that everyone at the Giants must take responsibility.

“People blame the coaches,” he said.

“That’s the normal thing to do, that’s the culture of our sport. But everyone has to put up their hand, really.

“The coach does, but, at the end of the day, we players are the ones who go out on the field.

“If you watch most of our performances over this year, then you’d ask where the effort was. It’s just not good enough.

“It’s no certain individuals, or certain positions on the field, it’s been different people in different positions every game.

“So you can’t say it’s one individual who’s let the team down, or the props, or the wingers, or the half backs are letting us down.

“It’s just we haven’t been on the same page, and too many times we’ve been trying to carry too many people, and there’s not been enough effort throughout the season.

“Everyone blames the coach, but it’s collective for everyone in the club.”

The arrival of new coach Rick Stone at Huddersfield has galvanised the squad, however, and McGillvary is looking to impress the new man, once he returns from injury.

“He doesn’t know us and we don’t know him, so everyone is keen to impress and show him what we’re about,” he said.

“He’s said that he’ll give everyone a chance. He’s watched us in two games now and he knows what we’re about and where we need to fix up.

“I’m injured at the moment, but I’ve been watching the boys train, and it’s been really intense.

“I can see what he’s trying to work on. So hopefully it’ll give us a boost going into these Middle Eights, because we need to start strongly.

“We can’t just be trying to scrape games at the end, we need to get safe as soon as possible. It’s easier said than done.

“Everyone wants to do that. Everyone wants to get into Super League.

“The Championship teams will be looking at us because we finished bottom to get one over on us.

“We need to get a serious kick up the arse and get going, because it’s not been good enough.”

Stone offers a different type of coaching to his predecessor Paul Anderson too, according to McGillvary.

“He’s completely different, he’s more similar to Nathan Brown, I would say,” McGillvary said of Stone.

“He’s a very smart character and he’s really big on his discipline too.

“So that’ll be good for our team, because we’ve not had much of that in the past.”