Brown undecided on future as Giants look to bounce back

The Giants slipped from the top of Engage Super League after losing two of their last three matches amid speculation that the former St George boss is set to return to Australia when his contract runs out in November.

Brown, whose wife recently gave birth to their third child, has not yet made his mind up but intends to make a decision soon. “I’ve always said I’d wait a few weeks after the baby was born to make a decision,” he said yesterday.

“In the next week or two, I’d like to get it settled – not only for my own sake but for the club’s sake, for recruiting and retaining players going forward.

“I’d like to think in the next couple of weeks we’ll get things sorted, one way or the other about what’s going to happen.”

Huddersfield’s mini slump has brought comparisons with their disappointing mid-season spell a year ago when they went on a four-match losing run between Brown announcing he was to leave the club a year early and performing an about-turn.

Brown, Super League coach of the year in 2009 after guiding the Giants to the Challenge Cup final and a third-place finish in the League, does not believe the uncertainty has affected the performances of his players.

“I’d like to think not,” he said. “We’ve got a pretty reasonable leadership group in place and, if the right people set the right examples on and off the field, it shouldn’t really matter.”

Huddersfield captain Kevin Brown, who will lead his side against St Helens on Saturday, said: “It’s not affected my form and it’s not been spoken about in training.

“As a player, you get paid to play and whether he’s here or not next year it shouldn’t make a difference now.

“It seems like a big coincidence, like last year as well. Hopefully, we’re over that now.”

Head coach Brian McDermott will look for Leeds Rhinos to continue their hard work on and off the field as they prepare for the visit of Catalan Dragons to Headingley tomorrow, attempting to make it five wins in a row.

Rhinos’ victory over Crusaders on Saturday made it four wins in succession and McDermott has praised the determination of the group he has under his charge.

“There’s no magical answer (for the good run), it’s just hard work,” he said. “When I took this team over the one thing I knew they had was a lot of integrity.

“They all have good grounding and they’re good to work with. They’re desire to get it right and to work hard is brilliant. And I would say that about the staff as well.”

The negatives from the weekend involved injuries to several players. Chris Clarkson will miss tomorrow’s game after getting a bang on his ankle, but the good news is that there is no break as was first feared.

Danny McGuire is still waiting for test reports on his quad injury but Rhinos are hopeful these will reveal a strain rather than a tear, which would only keep him out for a couple of weeks.

Brent Webb is also looking at two weeks out with a quad injury.

Crusaders Hep Cahill has been cleared to play against Wakefield tomorrow after escaping further punishment for kicking Rhinos scrum-half Rob Burrow. He was sent off in last weekend’s game.