Brown meets players’ wishes but Giants unable to emulate Rhinos

The West Yorkshire club were last night denied a place at Wembley after Warrington Wolves eased past them 33-6 to set up an August 25 final with Leeds Rhinos.

Beleaguered Huddersfield, who had lost seven of their last eight games to fall from first to seventh in Super League, had ‘clear-the-air’ talks after the previous week’s embarrassing 52-6 loss at struggling Castleford Tigers.

The Giants chief subsequently switched captain Kevin Brown from loose forward to stand-off yesterday as Huddersfield reverted to last season’s attacking formation with No 6 Scott Grix returning to full-back at the surprise expense of the exciting Greg Eden.

Brown fell short of labelling the move ‘player power’ but, when asked if his personnel and positional changes were a big gamble to freshen the squad, he told the post-match press conference: “It certainly wasn’t my idea to want to freshen things up, I can give you the tip.

“Basically, the players weren’t happy attacking the way we were attacking. They were desperate to change so, from a coaching point of view...

“Last week (against Castleford) we obviously had an issue with our effort. People don’t go out not to try and I said then there was some underlying issues.

“One was the players didn’t want to play our attacking structure any more so it was pointless going out and attacking like that again, wasn’t it?

“We’d have got a poor effort again so we had to try and change it in a week before a Challenge Cup semi-final which was never going to be easy.

“It’s one of those things; it’s not ideal for anyone but we found ourselves in a situation.

“The players were more keen to go back to a traditional seven and six style of football which is what we did and the reward was we got good effort but poor attack out of it.

“Poor attack just puts your defence under pressure.”

Brown, of course, will leave for St Helens at the end of the season and many have attributed Huddersfield’s fall from grace to that announcement.

However, the 38-year-old has always denied that has been an issue and last night insisted he had every desire to complete the campaign.

“I always wanted to be at Huddersfield for the year,” he said. “Leaving early never crossed my mind, whether you’re winning or losing.”

Brett Hodgson, who captained Huddersfield to Wembley when they lost to Warrington in the 2009 final during Brown’s first year in charge, was instrumental in their downfall last night.

The Australian full-back contributed 17 points to set up a replay of the 2010 final with Leeds which the Wolves won 30-6.

Rhinos ensured there would be some Yorkshire representation at Wembley with Saturday’s brilliant 39-28 shock win over holders and favourites Wigan Warriors. The enthralling victory saw them avenge last year’s final loss to the Cherry and Whites and left Leeds chief executive Gary Hetherington purring.

The Super League champions have endured a tough season themselves, slipping to ninth in the table and losing 50-8 to Wigan just six weeks ago. But they have now won their last five games to rise to fifth and secure a third successive Wembley appearance.

While Leeds have won four of the last five league titles and are again World Club champions, the Challenge Cup has frustratingly remained out of reach with the Rhinos having lost five finals since their last success in 1999.

But Hetherington told the Yorkshire Post: “That Wigan win has got to be up there with all our achievements. It was just a sensational contest and it needed a special performance.

“This is a very special group of players who have a special way of being capable of coming up with the goods when it matters most.

“The last time we played Warrington at Wembley was the only time we let ourselves down.

“Warrington were outstanding that day but you’d expect us to be better this time; this team has grown in stature.”

He added: “Brian (McDermott) got the tactics spot on and there was a strong belief from all the players going into this (Wigan) game. They are a special bunch who deserve a Challenge Cup final winner’s medal.”

For all McDermott’s critics, he has now taken Leeds to every final possible in his 22 months at the helm. The loss to Wigan at Wembley last August was his only blemish in remarkably securing a dozen victories from 13 knockout matches.