York Knights boss Mark Applegarth would fully agree with the notion that the club’s effort against Huddersfield Giants was their worst of the season so far, but he is refusing to use injuries as an excuse.
The Knights suffered their fourth defeat in a row at the Accu Stadium, as Liam Finn’s Giants secured their second consecutive win. Tries came from Adam Clune, Zac Woolford and three others as Huddersfield secured a 34-14 victory.
After a scathing review of his side post-match to Sky Sports, Applegarth continued those comments in the press conference, and said some “private conversations” need to be had with some members of the playing group.
The boss said: “You can stomach a loss if you feel that you’ve given it everything you’ve got and you’ve not quite come up good enough.
“You can handle them losses, it’s the losses where I feel that certain people have probably not put their best foot forward, and that’s my job as coach to make sure I identify that and we don’t accept it.”
Asked if Saturday’s showing was the most disappointing in Super League yet, he said: ” Yes. 100% it is.
“The most honest answer I can give you is yes. The majority of the squad has bought into each other and gone hard and I think one or two has probably not bought into the squad.
“They’re the private conversations I’ll be having, but I feel we let ourselves down today.
“It’s the first time I feel we’ve not shown that desperation to defend our errors as much as we should and as a coach, that’s what I’ll be chasing.”
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York Knights boss provides injury updates on ex-Hull KR and St Helens men
York suffered two further injuries in their game this weekend, the first being full-back Will Dagger, who failed a HIA mid-match and will be unavailable for next week’s Challenge Cup tie against Hull KR.
“It’s unlucky for ‘Dags’, he can’t catch a break, can he?” Applegarth said. “He’ll be missing for next week, but hopefully it’s not too bad and it’ll be a week and then he should be back in contention.”
Josh Griffin was another who didn’t see out the tie, with the boss confirming he had a back spasm that wouldn’t heal. However, he is confident they can sort that issue within the week.
The injury crisis at the club is currently so bad, the Knights couldn’t name an 18th player this afternoon, with the 17 in the side the only players that were available to them.
In terms of returning players, Sam Wood was labelled “touch and go” for next week, but he is the only player who could potentially make their comeback in the Cup.
Explaining the timeframes for former Saints man Jon Bennison and ex-Leeds forward Kieran Hudson, Applegarth revealed:
“Jon’s I want to say three weeks off. He starts full training with the squad next week. He’ll need a bit of there just integrating back.
“Kieran’s still a week or two off getting actually back in with the squad. Jon, I reckon he’s three weeks off and Kieran shouldn’t be too much longer than that.”
