Huddersfield Giants boss laments club’s rentention of players

Huddersfield Giants head coach Luke Robinson has suggested the club needs to do more in order to keep big-name players at the club.

This comes in a week where the departures of key players such as Sebastine Ikahihifo and Kevin Naiqama were confirmed.

This is on top of the departures that we were already aware of – Esan Marsters to Salford Red Devils and Olly Russell to Wakefield Trinity.

Speaking on The Bench Podcast with Jenna Brooks and Jon Wilkin, Robinson was asked about a number of key factors that are going wrong for the club.

Huddersfield Giants boss laments club’s rentention of players

“I think recruitment is a big factor within the club. I think we’ve got a lot of strong stuff going on within the club.

“You know, look at our youth system for example, Will Pryce is playing in the NRL, Dom Young is playing in the NRL, Kruise Leeming, Wardle were playing last night. We’ve got these players that are playing not only at our club but throughout the club. We’ve got a really good youth system. I just don’t think, I say recruitment and retention. Yeah, retention is the big one.

It is and I just think any good club worth its salt, you look at Warrington at the moment and Wigan obviously forever and St Helens forever, they’re really successful clubs, the pillars of their team are based on the youth and that’s what makes them sustainable. Coupled with bringing in Jai Field, Bevan French and players of that ilk.

Jon Wilkin and Jenna Brooks then mentioned a number of players that have recently left the club- Danny Levi, Will Pryce, Esan Marsters, Ricky Leutele and Luke Yates, and posed the question to Robinson – why are they leaving?

He responded: “Some of them you can’t really do anything about. For example Danny Levi, his wife was homesick. You’re going to get that when somebody moves half way around the world and they’re not always going to settle, the families aren’t going to settle.

“So you are always going to have things that go wrong and people want to move on, you can’t stop that.”

He continued: “I just feel like if we have a bit more of a structure put in place regarding stuff off the field, I think we’ll be in a lot better place to actually retain players. And then obviously being able to recruit players that I’ve said for a long time, it isn’t just about the playing quality.

“You want the right people within you. You know about what it’s like. When you’re creating a good culture, recruitment is probably one of the biggest things. You need to recruit the right person.”