Ian Watson sends ominous message to rest of the league following cup final heartache

Yesterday, Ian Watson lost a third major final but was not prepared to sulk about the loss.

The Giants came so close to winning only to be undone by a late Liam Marshall try. His side were arguably the better team for the most part, a view Watson himself takes, and would have learnt a lot from the experience.

His project is coming along nicely at the John Smith’s Stadium as they develop into a major contender and after the game he sent out a message to the rest of the league about the Giants’ ambitions moving forward: “This has got to be a start point for us. This is our first final, there’s a lot of lads in there, young guys who you could see the anticipation and nervousness before the game that they knew it was slightly different than before.

“They’ve experienced it now and hopefully we can use that going forward.”

He also stated that he doesn’t buy into the notion that you have to lose a final to win one: “I think you go and take the opportunity when you get it. People say ‘you’ve got to lose one to win one’ I don’t agree with that. I’ve been in three finals now and lost all three.

“I’m not a fan of that, I think you get an opportunity to win it you go and attack it.

“We will learn from it and we will move forward but the outcome was to win.

Reflecting on the defeat he promised it would not deter him from his project despite how much it hurts and that he has an ambition to make this the standard for the Giants moving forward hoping to win the Grand Final at the end of the year: “It’ll sting and it’ll hurt me because it does when you lose, I don’t like losing. I want to win and be a winner. I’ll always strive to do that.

“This won’t deter me from what we’re doing likewise if we’d have won it wouldn’t deter me from what we’re doing, I’d still want to win the Grand Final at the back end of the year and that’s hopefully becoming our standards as a group.”