Back in 2013, Huddersfield Giants won their first, and to this day only, piece of silverware of the Super League era, as they finished top of the table, claiming the League Leaders Shield.
Despite their table-topping triumph, they would fail to reach the Grand Final, losing to Warrington Wolves in the semi-finals, after the Wolves chose the Giants in the controversial ‘club call’ – whereby the highest ranked winner from the first round of finals got to select whichever remaining team they wanted in the semi-finals.
Regardless, it was still Huddersfield’s best season in the summer era, with the club only managing to reach as high as third since then, a feat they have achieved on three occasions.
Chairman Ken Davy has been very vocal this off-season about how he wants his side to get to the Grand Final over the next few years, and with a new stadium potentially on the way, there are certainly positive signs for the West Yorkshire outfit.
Whilst Davy is looking to the future, we have opted to look back, and evaluate where that table-topping side are now, with many having some interesting career paths.
Where are Huddersfield Giants’ League Leaders Shield-winning side now?
We have opted to look back at the 17 players who took to the field the night Huddersfield lifted the trophy. After thrashing Wakefield Trinity 40-0, the side were crowned as Shield winners, with them being mathematically clear of Warrington in second.
Full-back: Scott Grix
The playmaker featured for Huddersfield between 2010 and 2016, and re-joined the club for four games in 2019. In total, he made 168 appearances for the club, but spells elsewhere at Wakefield twice, Halifax twice and Leigh, among others mean that his overall appearance tally sits just short of 400.
A 22-time Ireland international, Grix hung up his boots in 2021, and is now on the coaching staff at Leeds Rhinos. Alongside Jamie Langley, he has recently signed a new two-year contract extension.
Wingers: Jermaine McGillvary and Aaron Murphy
McGillvary, who is the top try scorer in Huddersfield’s history, scored 20 tries in 30 games that season. After being at the club since 2010, he would move to the then Championship side Wakefield Trinity for a year, as he helped them earn promotion back to the top flight. There is no shortage of talent in the McGillvary household, with his son, Isaac, currently enrolled in the Chelsea FC academy.
Murphy boasted the exact same try tally as McGillvary that year, and after leaving the Giants in 2020, he moved to Bradford for two seasons, before ending his career with two years at Sheffield Eagles. He retired from the game at the end of 2024, amassing a total of 234 Super League matches.
Centres: Leroy Cudjoe and Joe Wardle
Huddersfield legend Cudjoe retired from the sport at the end of 2025, after a sensational 18 years at the club. Totalling over 400 games for the club, Cudjoe is one of the Giants’ best ever, and in 2013 he had one of his most successful seasons. He was one of five Huddersfield players to be named in the Dream Team, and was named in the squad for the World Cup at the end of that year, playing in all of England’s five matches. He is still at the club, but in a coaching role, and works alongside Luke Robinson and Liam Finn, with a focus on the players transitioning from the academy side to the first team.
Wardle, who’s brother Jake is currently thriving at Wigan Warriors, played for the Giants between 2011 and 2021, with a two year stint away at Newcastle Knights in the NRL and Castleford Tigers sandwiched in between. Most recently, he was on the coaching staff at Oldham RLFC, but departed the club alongside head coach Sean Long earlier this off-season.
Halves: Danny Brough and Luke Robinson
Brough was crowned the Man of Steel in 2013, after a brilliant year that saw him rack up his own highest points tally in a Super League season. A 2013 Dream Team member, the former Hull FC and Castleford man returned to Wakefield Trinity in 2019 and 2020, before a season at Bradford rounded out his career. He is currently working as the head coach of rugby union side Huddersfield RUFC, who currently have former Great Britain international Gareth Widdop on their roster!
Robinson, is of course, the current Huddersfield head coach, after taking the role half-way through 2024 from Ian Watson. As a player, he featured 228 times for the Giants, but also had spells at Wigan, Castleford and Salford, all of whom he played for prior to joining the Fartown-based outfit.
Props: Eorl Crabtree and Craig Kopczak
‘Big Eorl’ is yet another hero from this era of Giants team, and one of the five players to be named in the Dream Team. After retiring from the sport in 2016, following a 16-year career that totalled to 424 matches, he remained at the club to work in an off-field role until the start of 2025, where he joined Midlands Hurricanes to become their Managing Director. in his spare time, he also plays for Huddersfield RUFC, just not in Brough’s first-team setup.
Kopczak retired from the sport at the start of 2025, after a year at Oldham in their League One title winning season. Starting his career at Bradford in 2006, he has also featured for Halifax, Salford, Wakefield and Featherstone, and ended his near-two-decade career with over 400 appearances. He is also a 20-time Welsh international, and played for his country in two World Cups.
Hooker: Shaun Lunt
The fourth player to be inducted into the Dream Team, Lunt burst on to the scene at Huddersfield following his move from Workington in 2009. Fresh of a loan spell at Leeds Rhinos that saw him win the Grand Final, Lunt continued that form into 2013, and became one of the best hookers in the competition. He moved to Hull KR in 2015, before returning to Leeds as part of a swap deal with Matt Parcell in 2019. He now works for Elect, a Yorkshire-based recruitment company, and is also an assistant coach in the Rhinos academy.
Back Row: Brett Ferres and Jason Chan
Ferres is the only man from the side to still be playing the game, and currently features for Goole Vikings in the Championship. Ferres will be 40 in April, but still has plenty to give Scott Taylor’s side. The 16-time England international has played for Bradford, Wakefield, Castleford, Leeds, Featherstone and Doncaster in his career, and is the fifth and final Giants player to have been named in the 2013 Dream Team.
Chan is a former Papua New Guinean international, and featured for Huddersfield between 2012 and 2014, after moving from Crusaders RL. The now 41-year-old returned to Australia at the end of 2014, after a brief loan spell at Hull KR.
Loose forward: Michael Lawrence
Another Giants legend, Lawrence played for the Bulls between 2007 and 2022, and racked up 324 matches in Claret and Gold. He moved to Bradford in 2023, and played there for three seasons before announcing his retirement at the end of 2025. He is now a PE teacher at a school in Bradford.
Bench: David Faiumu, Larne Patrick, Ukuma Ta’ai and Kyle Wood.
Faiumu represented Huddersfield between 2008 and 2014, when he retired, and went on to work as a community development officer at the club. After returning to Australia, he became head coach of QLD Cup side Queensland Central Capras, but only lasted one season in 2019.
Patrick had permanent spells at Castleford and Leigh following his exit in 2016. In a career that spanned 10 seasons, he made over 200 career appearances, including three for Wales at the 2013 World Cup. He is now the Director of a company that manufactures and renovates caravans and chalets.
Ta’ai only recently hung up the boots, doing so after the his season with York Knights culminated. The former New Zealand Warriors man moved to the UK in 2013, and after departing Huddersfield in 2020, he joined Newcastle Thunder for two seasons. He ended his career at the Knights after he helped them to Super League promotion.
Wood hung up the boots at the end of 2024, following a sole season at Sheffield Eagles. Wood had spells at a number of Yorkshire-based clubs, in a 17-year career that included just short of 400 appearances. He now works as an electrician.
