Ian Watson explains why Huddersfield Giants fell away at the end of 2022

2022 was a brilliant season for the Huddersfield Giants and 2023 is set to be even better.

Last season they finished third and played in a first major final since 2009 but sadly they fell away culminating in being kept scoreless by Salford in their play-off exit.

This came on the back of some form that perhaps didn’t live up to the standards Huddersfield had set earlier in the year and speaking on Giants TV, coach Ian Watson has explained why he thinks Huddersfield fell away towards the end of the year.

“As a club you always want more,” Watson said, “With opportunities, you always want more. At the back end of the year we probably fell away with too many 40 minute performances and it was difficult because we were still winning those games so the players probably couldn’t see the effect that that was going to have on us coming into the play-offs.

“We needed to be a little more single-minded.

“Overall I think we deserve huge credit for finishing third in the table, I think the players deserve huge credit for what they did.

“To show that level of consistency is a big thing, it’s something this club has not had in a long time. We did it with a lot of young players in there and the experienced players played a massive part in that but we need to get that balance right going forward.

“We played more games, us and Wigan we played more games with getting to the Challenge Cup Final which probably caught up with us in the end and with our guys being so young they need a break.”