Huddersfield Giants have confirmed that Leroy Cudjoe will captain the club through the 2025 Super League season. Cudjoe has been with the Giants throughout his career and at the age of 36 he has taken on the skipper role going into the new campaign.
Cudjoe is from Huddersfield and after 17 seasons in the Giants’ first-team he has amassed 382 appearances, touching down for 135 tries along the way. The centre-turned-loose forward takes on the role permanently following a squad vote with four others being named in Luke Robinson’s leadership group.
Half-back Adam Clune, Adam Swift, Harry Rushton and Sam Hewitt have been elected to join Cudjoe in that group, with Rushton being just 23-years of age, which speaks volumes about his standing within the group.
“I’m really honoured to be named captain of the club,” Cudjoe told the Huddersfield Giants website. “It makes it more special as the votes came from my teammates and staff. The club has been a massive part of mine and my family’s life so to be chosen to captain my hometown club is a real privilege.”
“It’s not just about me, we have a really strong leadership group and strong leadership throughout the rest of the squad. Everyone plays their part and we’re all in it together.”
“I am really looking forward to the season ahead. We’ve had a really good week in Malaga both on the field and off the field building relationships and togetherness.”
The decision was announced to the squad in Malaga at the Giants’ warm weather training camp, with Robinson’s speech being filmed and posted on social media by the club.
©️ Huddersfield Giants can confirm our Captain and Leadership group for 2025#Since1895 pic.twitter.com/F2C1LWBExf
— Huddersfield Giants 🐮🔔 (@Giantsrl) January 9, 2025
“The individuals we’ve picked have shown resilience, they’ve shown hard work, they’ve shown respect,” Robinson said of his leadership group. “What is good is there’s a lot of names that didn’t make the leadership group but still got votes and that shows where we’re going as a group, that we’re starting to see those traits in not only the older more experienced blokes but the younger blokes as well. That’s really good for us moving forward.”
On Cudjoe he added: “He’s pretty much what you want as a captain, he’s what you want as a player and he’s what you want as a teammate. He’s shown resilience, he’s had career threatening injuries and normally blokes would quit and retire but he bounced back from them.
“He reinvented himself in a different position and arguably he was our best player last year by a county mile. Hard work, he’s the first on the field and he’s always not only working personally on his own game but actually cares about you as teammates, he’s always looking after you.
“He respects the club more than anybody I’ve ever met and he bleeds claret and gold, he not only respects us a group but the club itself, he’s always with the scholarship and academy lads and coaching the coaches below us. I couldn’t think of a better man.”
