Friday interview - Eorl Crabtree: Eager to stay on road back to Wembley

The Huddersfield coach has also publicly expressed his belief that the gifted but volatile Kiwi World Cup winner will be one of his "enforcers" if officials do not start protecting the club's smaller players.

It should have been no surprise then that Fa'alogo – one of two players due on media duty with Brown this Wednesday – did not attend the press conference ahead of tomorrow's Carnegie Challenge Cup tie against Warrington.

The official reason was he had pulled a hamstring in training and will not play in the fifth round re-match of last year's final.

However, despite him being sacked from previous club South Sydney for knocking out coach Jason Taylor, you could imagine he was probably dreading what statements Brown might make about him next. Possibly he'd heap a little more pressure on; never mind lining him up to go toe-to-toe with Adrian Morley, maybe he would have had him standing for Parliament.

Instead, Huddersfield prop Eorl Crabtree was left to sit alone alongside the Giants' coach and surprisingly – save one uneasy moment – it proved the most undemanding media call of his life.

The England international – always good for a quote – did not face one question as Brown monopolised journalists' attention with his straight-talking, honest and withering assessment of Super League's disciplinary set-up.

The Australian, who has been refreshingly open for much of his 18 months in this country, has become increasingly frank in recent weeks – remember his brutal blast at Castleford's Joe Westerman? – fuelling the belief he may be returning to the NRL at the end of the season.

The only point at which Crabtree was tentatively involved was when, 15 minutes into the press conference and back on the subject of Warrington, Brown remarked how he expected his experienced players, "like Eorl" to play well in such a crucial fixture because "that's why they get paid the cash they get."

No pressure Mr Crabtree. It was meant as a compliment but you could see Crabtree wince.

However, the formidable forward, now in his testimonial season at Galpharm Stadium, probably understood the comment could also have been a thinly-veiled reminder of what happened at Wembley last August.

Too many "big" players failed to deliver when it mattered most against Warrington and Tony Smith's side were allowed to walk away with the Challenge Cup, the Giants' despair deepened because they all knew they could have done so much better.

Huddersfield – who also lost the 2006 final against St Helens at Twickenham – have had plenty of time to ponder what went wrong that day and Crabtree admits there is no room for a similar no-show tomorrow.

"It's very important to take this game to the next level," he said, "simply because if we don't we're going to lose and again it's another year gone where we could have done better.

"It's not really a revenge mission – we've already played Warrington this year in Super League (and lost 14-10) but we just want to take the next step and to go on and win one.

"It's about being good at the right times though. We have to be good this weekend."

It might come as a concern to Huddersfield fans that, for all their improvements during Brown's reign, they have failed to produce in a number of high-profile games – Wembley, last year's play-off against Catalans and last weekend's Magic Weekend encounter with table-topping Wigan to name a few.

But Crabtree, who has seen the West Yorkshire club through plenty of dark days, is unyielding in his belief they will eventually emerge as trophy winners.

Returning to Wembley and addressing those wrongs is uppermost in his thoughts.

Ahead of the Galpharm encounter between the joint fourth 7-1 favourites, Crabtree admitted: "You do have thoughts of losing (at Wembley) as they are the memories you live with forever.

"But it's the incentive and motivation to spur you on to do greater things.

"For me it's the biggest motivation. Everything about that Wembley week is fantastic. It's the biggest week of your life and you are treated like royalty.

"To go out there in front of 80,000 people is like living a dream. All the boys want to get back there and have another crack at it.

"I don't need reminding that I've lost twice. That's the frustrating thing about it. Huddersfield have massive ambition and we never seem to achieve anything.

"But, over the last year, especially under Nathan Brown, we've come on leaps and bounds.

"We've become a lot better and are trying to improve but unfortunately for us Warrington have done the same thing. They've done better too.

"It's always going to be a tough ask but you've got to believe in yourselves and we do."

Warrington have made significant strides since Wembley, the capture of England stars Richie Myler and Ryan Atkins making them more forceful in 2010. They trail leaders Wigan by just two points.

Having also pulled off a sizeable coup by announcing the capture of talismanic Huddersfield captain Brett Hodgson for next season – he could make a surprise early return from a hamstring injury tomorrow – they show no signs of holding back.

Huddersfield held Wigan 4-4 at the break in Murrayfield before being dismantled 28-10 and Crabtree is all too aware Warrington could do the same tomorrow if they do not respond.

"We're all disappointed with ourselves as we were very much in the game against Wigan and then it went away from us," he said. "We let it slip and it's our fault because we weren't clinical enough. We need to learn from that."

Brown praised him as one of the few players to emerge with credit from that Wigan defeat. At 6ft 7ins, Crabtree naturally stands tall but if Huddersfield are going to move within two wins of a Wembley return, they need their outspoken coach to be able to say the same about all his players tomorrow.